Tiger King director reveals how imprisoned star Joe Exotic responded to ‘bonkers’ documentary

The co-director of controversial documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness has revealed that star Joey King is “absolutely thrilled” about the show.

The Netflix series follows the extraordinary events involving Exotic, a tiger trader, and his rivalry with Big Cat Rescue sanctuary owner Carole Baskin, who accused him of breeding big cats unethically.

Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence for crimes including trying to hire someone to murder Baskin, and for various crimes related to endangered species and conservation.

Eric Goode, who co-directed Tiger King with Rebecca Chaiklin, told LadBible that Exotic had been in touch from jail since the documentary first aired.

“He has lived his entire life just to be famous and so to finally realise this fame is just... He’s tickled pink,” he said.

“Even though he’s behind bars it’s really interesting to see Joe’s response – it’s incredible, and very surprising. He’s absolutely thrilled.”

Goode admitted he had “mixed feelings” about the show’s star, and said he did “horrific things”.

“He was one of those people that would try to tell you what you wanted to hear,” Goode said. “He’s very manipulative – and smart in many ways – but in the end you know all of these people, including Carole, created their own little world within a world. Most of them are living outside of mainstream America.”

Goode also responded to Baskin’s complaints that the show misrepresented her, arguing that he let the people involved in the documentary “speak for themselves”.

His comments follow the news that Kate McKinnon has been cast to star in a feature film adaptation of the documentary.

Tiger King is available on Netflix now.

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