Imprisoned ‘Tiger King’ star Joe Exotic is ‘over the moon’ to be famous, directors say
“Tiger King” was probably always destined to become a hit. How could a docuseries with exotic animals, polygamy, guns, murder conspiracies, meth and genital piercings be anything but?
That the show just happened to come out on Netflix on March 20 — as Americans were self-isolating at home because of the coronavirus outbreak — has only propelled it to greater popularity. Since its release, “Tiger King” has occupied the No. 1 spot on the streaming platform’s top 10 ranking. Memes about its colorful cast of characters have proliferated on Twitter and Instagram. Kim Kardashian West, Sam Smith and Awkwafina are just some of the celebrities who have said they’re watching.
If you’re one of the scant few who’ve yet to binge the seven-part series, allow us to explain.
Filmed over the course of five years, “Tiger King” centers largely on Joe “Exotic” Maldonado-Passage, the owner of a roadside wild cat zoo in rural Oklahoma. Joe Exotic bears a resemblance to Bret Michaels, carries a pistol on his hip, has a penchant for sequins and piercings and at one point had two much younger husbands. He’s also obsessed with being famous, broadcasting the goings-on at the zoo via his own YouTube channel, where he spews hatred about his nemesis, Carole Baskin. Baskin, who has waist-length blond hair and only wears animal prints, runs her own cat park in Florida — though she bills it as a rescue facility — and opposes Joe’s practice of breeding lions and tigers and keeping them in captivity for profit.
Eventually, the sparring between the two turns more serious: Suffice it to say, Joe Exotic, now 57, is in federal prison. We won’t give the ending away completely, but he was sentenced to 22 years behind bars for charges related to Baskin, as well as killing some of his own tigers.
There are plenty of other wild, ethically dubious characters in “Tiger King.” Self-proclaimed cat lover Doc Antle operates the Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina with the aid of beautiful young women with whom he also has romantic relationships. Supposed wealthy businessman Jeff Lowe swoops in to bail Joe Exotic’s park out of financial ruin but ultimately ends up taking it over himself.
It’s a lot. To help us sift through the chaotic world of “Tiger King,” we sought out its co-directors and writers, Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, who called from their respective quarantines in California and Woodstock, N.Y.
Q: How do you feel about the fact that the series’ release has coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic?
Chaiklin: I hope that the series can provide a bit of entertainment and distraction for people, but more than anything, we’re glad that people are staying at home. Not because of the show, but because it’s the right thing to do. It’s completely uncharted territory for us, and it’s a dangerous time.
Goode: It underscores that reality is stranger than fiction. We have a captive audience watching captive cats. I’m the last person to talk to about statistics and ratings. Obviously, I’m happy that people are seeing it. We worked on it for a very long time, and it’s very rewarding.
Q: Eric, in 2012 the New Yorker profiled you because you’re a herpetophile, and you’ve spent a lot of time and money trying to save endangered turtles and tortoises. Why didn’t you include your own animal obsession in “Tiger King?”
Goode: I guess you could say I’m a closeted animal person, because a lot of my life I did it in secrecy. I was always fascinated with exotic animals, particularly reptiles, from the age of 6 when I got a pet tortoise. Later in life, I started an organization that works to save tortoises and turtles that are threatened, but in full disclosure, I still always had a fascination with people who kept animals. I wasn’t intimately involved in the big cat world, but there’s really one degree of separation between these different subcultures — primates, birds, tropical fish, whatever it is.
Q: How would you characterize “tiger people”?
Goode: I would say the big cat people see tigers as sort of a status symbol, as you would a Ferrari or fancy car collection. They have the animals to elevate their position. It makes them special.
Q: Are the subjects in “Tiger King” a dying breed? Don’t you feel like there’s more public consciousness about animals in captivity nowadays? People posing with tigers in dating apps often get shamed.
Chaiklin: The world of exotic animal people has been very secretive because the more they’re out of the limelight, the less subject they are to regulations. But there’s this crazy thing that’s happened: In order to monetize these animals, they’ve all begun to engage in social media. But there’s also a shifting consciousness that these are sentient beings, so I think it is a world that is coming to an end, in many ways. Even regular zoos have much stricter regulations now. There’s a large percentage of Americans who say they would no longer take their children to azoo.
Goode: There is a whole new disturbing trend of exotic animal tourism. People can monetize photographs with elephants on a beach or tigers or large pythons or dolphins.
Q: While filming all of these baby tigers, were you ever tempted to cuddle with one yourself?
Chaiklin: Most of the tigers we were around were subjected to abject cruelty. We saw babies being torn from their mothers and screaming. They’d get sick from being handled so much and get ringworm and mange. It was disturbing. Are they cute? Yes. Were there temptations to cuddle or touch? Yes. But it was very clear that it was not something positive.
Goode: As for the tourists who patronize these places — I think there’s a parallel between guns and animals. You can buy an AR-15 in Oklahoma just like you can buy a tiger easily. What you do in Oklahoma with tigers in these roadside zoos would be frowned on if it opened in the LA basin or New York. I think it’s a lack of education. And people believe we should be able to have a tiger, because this is America — who should stop us?
Q: Have you been in touch with Joe from prison?
Goode: Joe has called me quite a few times over the last few days and weeks. One, he is absolutely ecstatic about the series and the idea of being famous. He’s absolutely thrilled. I think he is trying to be an advocate for — no surprise — criminal justice reform. He is in a cage and of course he’s gonna say that he now recognizes what he did to these animals. With Joe, we have empathy for him, but at the same time, he’s someone who really knows what to say at the right moment. I take it with a big grain of salt when he says he is now apologetic for keeping animals.
Chaiklin: You can hardly talk to him without him mentioning the amount of press he’s getting. He says people are asking to see his Prince Albert and girls are sending him sexy bikini pictures even though he’s gay. He’s over the moon. Having kept in pretty close touch with him while he’s been in a horrible county prison, this has raised his spirits. Joe definitely did some horrible things to his animals. He was very abusive to them and he shot five tigers, no question about it. But what has happened to him has also been hard.