Who Is Pete Davidson's New Girlfriend?
In late August 2019, Us Weekly revealed that Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson was dating Margaret Qualley. A source dished that the comedian and the Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019) starlet had been dating for "a couple of months," noting that 24-year-old Qualley was "really excited" about Davidson.
The young starlet is the latest in a line of famous brunettes that Davidson has reportedly made swoon. He split from Underworld (2003) actress Kate Beckinsale in April 2019 after about four months of May-December romance. He enjoyed a brief, notoriously whirlwind relationship with and engagement to Ariana Grande before she literally said "Thank U, Next" in October 2018 after about five months. Prior to Grande, Davidson dated Cazzie David, the daughter of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David, for about two years.
So does Davidson have a type beyond "famous, well-connected brunette?" Possibly. There's more to Qualley than just the gangly man on her arm. Let's get to know her together.
Pete Davidson's new girlfriend is the child of beautiful, divorced parents
While Margaret Qualley may not have immediate name recognition (yet), she does have a Hollywood pedigree. She's the daughter of actress and model Andie MacDowell, who's the star of classics like St. Elmo's Fire (1985), Groundhog Day (1993) and Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994). Qualley's father, Paul Qualley — to whom Andie was married from 1986 to 1999 — is a former model, according to Vogue. Her parents divorced when she was five years old, and Margaret admitted in a particularly awkward, stammering interview on The Late Late Show With James Corden that she attempted to use her love for Lindsay Lohan's The Parent Trap (1998) to get them to reunite.
It didn't work: Instead, she says, her mother began dating The Parent Trap patriarchal star Dennis Quaid after co-starring with him in Dinner With Friends (2001). Needless to say, Margaret wasn't exactly star-struck. "I felt like I made this happen. I felt like I'd ruined my life, my parents' life," she said. "She started dating Dennis Quaid and it was horrible. I was sure that it was all my fault, and that I wished this into fruition, and I took complete responsibility."
Did Margaret Qualley's parents help her climb the fame ladder?
Despite the obvious implications nepotism may have played in her success, Margaret Qualley says that her movie star mother actually made her not want to act. She explained to Vogue, "I grew up never thinking about acting as a profession because that was what my mum did and often you don't want to be like your parents."
Qualley also revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that it was her father, now a contractor in Panama, who she thinks indirectly helped her land the role of Pussycat in Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019). She explained that she felt like she bombed her initial audition for the role of the hitchhiking Manson girl. Her father didn't know she'd auditioned for the part and reportedly told her, "Book a ticket to Panama and you'll get a Quentin Tarantino movie. You know how when you make plans, sometimes life gets in the way and you get work?" Spoiler alert: Her dad's "psychic" advice somehow worked out pretty nicely for her: According to Screen Daily, Qualley delivered a "striking performance" in the role, while BFI labeled the up-and-coming star "wonderful."
The real reason Pete Davidson's new girlfriend gave up on her childhood passion
Before becoming an actress and "It Girl," Margaret Qualley was a dancer, classically trained in ballet. Qualley told Deadline that when she was a teen she planned out her life's trajectory with the goal of being a dancer in mind, dropping out of school at 16 to join a local dance company.
It wasn't meant to be, however: Qualley told Vogue that she suffered knee and hip issues that hindered her dance ability. She also confessed that seeing a woman in a wheelchair in her dance class made her realize that she simply didn't love ballet as much as she thought that she did. "She was there because she loved ballet and the music. She was having the time of her life. And I thought, 'I'm hating this class. I'm doing it for all the wrong reasons. I'm only here because I want to be better at school on Monday.'" Qualley walked out mid-class and never turned back.
Margaret Qualley is insecure about one particular feature
All those years of dance have made Margaret Qualley embarrassed to show her feet in public, making her barefoot scenes in Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019) a huge deal for her. She told IndieWire that she warned director Quentin Tarantino (who's been rumored to have a foot fetish) that he might not want to zoom in her on her tootsies to no avail.
"I genuinely was like, 'Quentin, this is a bad idea. I don't have good feet,'" Qualley recalled. "I was in pointe shoes for far too long to have toes that can be shown to the world. I know that I undermine myself pretty regularly, but I'm genuinely telling you these are not good feet, look at these. I know I'm self-deprecating, but I'm not being in this particular instance.'" She says that Tarantino and Brad Pitt tried to calm her down and assure her that she and her feet were fine, and while she didn't necessarily buy it, she eventually obliged, and may have almost completely gotten over her hangups about her feet entirely.
You've probably seen Pete Davidson's new girlfriend on TV
Though Margaret Qualley quit dance, she still uses her dance knowledge onscreen. She starred as dance icon Bob Fosse's mistress Anne Reinking in Fosse/Verdon, and admitted to Deadline that she wished she could have actually danced a bit more in the part. "I felt more confident about my dancing skills as an actor than my acting skills," she joked to the outlet. However, her screen chops are better than she gives herself credit for, as her work on the show earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Series Or Movie.
Before Fosse/Verdon, Qualley played Jill Garvey, the beautiful but often-exasperating daughter of Justin Theroux's Kevin Garvey, on HBO's The Leftovers from 2014 to 2017. She described her experience on the surreal drama as "the most intense acting school" in an interview with Teen Vogue, admitting, "I don't really know what I'm doing, to be honest. I come up with things and maybe it works and maybe it doesn't, and I try to learn from my castmates and director and from everyone."
Margaret Qualley is no stranger to the catwalk
Margaret Qualley tried her hand at modeling, similar to her mother Andie MacDowell, who's been the face of brands including Calvin Klein and L'Oréal. Us Weekly reported that after ditching dance at 16 years old, Qualley walked for Alberta Ferretti in 2011 for New York Fashion Week. She's also modeled for major fashion bigwigs including Kenzo, Ralph Lauren and Kate Spade. As of this writing, Qualley is signed to IMG Models, though she admitted to Vogue that she prefers acting because modeling feels "silly" to her.
If her 2016 Kenzo World fragrance commercial — which combines her modeling experience and her incredible dance skills — looks familiar, it may be because the Spike Jonze-directed clip has been compared to Taylor Swift's music video for "Delicate." A source close to Swift denied to Page Six that the singer lifted the concept, however, noting that Swift's video has "a beginning, a middle and an end" and was filmed in multiple locations.
Margaret Qualley is giving Pete Davidson some much-needed good press
Margaret Qualley and Pete Davidson's happy relationship news comes on the heels of a flurry of bad press for the comedian, who's open about his struggles with borderline personality disorder and low self-esteem. Days before the couple news broke, Davidson reportedly lashed out at a crowd of students during a show at the University of Central Florida. The students were accused of filming Davidson, which is generally a known no-no for standup comedy sets, but Davidson's rant included him calling the audience an unacceptable slur regarding those with intellectual disabilities, and slamming millennials, according to Page Six. A rep for the college told the outlet in a statement, "Mr. Davidson's abusive language, particularly his use of a derogatory slur, is contrary to the University of Central Florida's values of inclusion and respect for all. It's disappointing that his rant spoiled an event that was meant to welcome students back for the fall semester."
That same week, Davidson slammed "cancel culture" as a whole during another standup set. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Davidson told a recent audience in Las Vegas, "It's a weird time. Jokes are very scary to tell. Isn't that weird? That's the scariest thing you could do right now. Tell a joke. Because really, I think people pick and choose what they want to be mad at. You, know? Because it's all depending on if you like the person or not."