According to Rick Kirkham, Joe Exotic is Actually 'Terrified' of Big Cats
In the ten days following its March 20 release, Tiger King racked up 34 million viewers in the United States alone. For weeks (admittedly weeks lacking in big-name movie releases and many other forms of entertainment), the Netflix documentary series has been the nation's most-talked-about pop culture artifact. And now, the streaming service has released an eighth episode, an after show featuring The Soup's Joel McHale interviewing subjects of the series.
In the special episode, McHale interviews Joshua Dial, John Finlay, Saff Saffery, Erik Cowie, John Reinke, Jeff and Lauren Lowe, and Rick Kirkham via video chat. Each expressed differing views of the documentary and their portrayals in it. Lowe, who also admitted to owning "60 to 70" Affliction t-shirts, said that he felt the series depicted him as a villain in order to "sensationalize a story a little." Maldonado-Passage's ex-husband Finlay, who said he was many years sober during filming, resented being "portrayed as a drugged-out hillbilly." And the former roadside zookeeper's campaign manager, Dial, praised the series.
"The way they did this documentary, it’s fair, balanced and I just think it’s a wonderful production," said Dial. "The truth hurts."
Many of the figures most central to the original seven-episode run, including Joseph "Joe Exotic" Maldonado-Passage, Doc Antle, and Carole Baskin, were absent from the latest installment. Both Antle and Baskin have criticized portrayals in the series. In her first interview since the series' debut, Baskin told the Tampa Bay Times that she felt betrayed by the documentary's focus on the interpersonal dramas of the big cat world, and said that she participated initially because she believed that Tiger King would focuses more closely on abuses of big cats held in private ownership.
According to his husband, Maldonado-Passage has not been able to watch the series, but in a follow-up interview with Netflix, "Joe Exotic" seemed pleased with his new-found celebrity. Any further interview attempts were likely hindered by the fact that that he's currently isolated in a federal prison, convicted of attempted murder-for-hire and under a COVID-19 lockdown.
In the new interview, Dial describes the aftermath of seeing Maldonado-Passage's husband, Travis Maldonado, dying of an accidentally self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“I had to go into that office every day and sit in that same chair and look at that bullet hole in the wall every day for a year-and-a-half after Travis killed himself," Dial said. He added that he would still like to receive counseling for the trauma.
Kirkham, the former Inside Edition reporter who at one point set out to create a reality series about Maldonado-Passage, made a surprising claim during his interview—that the so-called "Tiger King" was in fact "terrified" of the wild cats he collected and bred, and only interacted directly with heavily sedated or disabled tigers.
"In the shots that you see in there, where he’s in with the two tigers, the white one and the other one," said Kirkham, "the white one is blind and the other one is on tranquilizers."
All of McHale's interviewees discussed adapting to newfound fame. Saffery described being recognized multiple times during a single late-night shopping trip. "I was stopped three times during a pandemic in Walmart," he said. Kirkham, who currently lives in Norway, said that he "can't even take a walk down at the fjord" without being recognized.
Kirkham also highlighted the irony in the fact that Maldonado-Passage, who for years pursued national celebrity, has finally found fame but is behind bars. "He doesn’t get any of the money that’s coming out," said Kirkham. "He doesn’t get any of the accolades or the opportunities. He doesn’t get anything. Except three meals a day."
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