Pete Davidson Is Completely Unrecognizable in His New Mob Movie ‘Tommy Karate’, and It’s Not Just the Hair

Comedy has long been Pete Davidson’s comfort zone, from his years on ‘Saturday Night Live’ to a string of semi-autobiographical film roles that leaned into his signature deadpan charm. For most of his career, audiences have known exactly what to expect when his name shows up in the credits.

That familiarity is about to get a serious shake-up, as new set photos reveal just how far Davidson is willing to go for a role that’s clearly meant to break every expectation people have of him.

Pete Davidson debuted a dramatic new look while filming his upcoming crime drama ‘Tommy Karate’ in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood on August 25, sporting a completely transformed image for his role as real-life mobster Tommy Pitera. Gone is Davidson’s signature close-cropped hairstyle, replaced by a dark, longer wig parted down the middle with loose curtain bangs framing his face, alongside piercing blue contacts that give him an almost unrecognizable appearance.

The film centers on Pitera, a Bonanno crime family enforcer whose martial arts skills earned him the nickname “Tommy Karate,” and who law enforcement suspected of as many as 60 murders throughout the 1970s and into the early 1990s. Based on Philip Carlo’s non-fiction book ‘The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath,’ the true-crime drama will chronicle the pursuit and eventual capture of Pitera by DEA Agent Jim Hunt, the same agent who also helped bring down drug lord El Chapo.

Davidson’s costuming on set was just as striking as his hair transformation, layering a black quilted bomber jacket embroidered with a red Japanese Oni mask motif over a black button-down shirt featuring a white crane print. He completed the look with loose black trousers and a pair of bright red sneakers, adding an unexpected streetwear edge to an otherwise dark and brooding outfit.

This isn’t a role Davidson stumbled into. He’s been developing ‘Tommy Karate’ for more than three years, co-writing the screenplay alongside director Justin Chon and Joseph Gay, while also serving as one of the film’s producers. Davidson has been candid about how much the project means to him, previously calling it “the greatest mob story never told” and describing the role as a “dream job” in a statement obtained by Deadline.

Chon, known for directing ‘Blue Bayou’ and working on Apple TV’s ‘Pachinko,’ has framed the project as more than just another nostalgic gangster film, saying he and Davidson are aiming to reimagine the genre through a contemporary lens built around character and real consequence rather than familiar mob movie tropes.

The film marks one of Davidson’s first major dramatic roles, joining a supporting cast that includes Camila Mendes, Simon Rex, and Paul Walter Hauser, who plays DEA Agent Jim Hunt. Director Chon first teased Davidson’s transformation back in July with a black-and-white first-look image, writing on Instagram that “Petey’z all growns up now,” while praising how far Davidson’s performance had come throughout the process.

Given how personally invested Davidson has been in bringing this story to the screen, from co-writing the script to producing the project himself, this transformation feels like more than just a physical makeover for a role. It’s shaping up to be a genuine reinvention of how audiences see him as an actor, and if these set photos are any indication, ‘Tommy Karate’ might just be the dramatic breakout moment Davidson has been building toward for years.

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