Joe Exotic 'killed animals for fun', reveals Rick Kirkham who filmed documentary with 'Tiger King' star
Netflix's documentary 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness' has made the controversial figure of Joe Exotic a household name. The documentary, which released on Netflix on March 20, 2020, has been making headlines to date. From his hair, his music videos to his ongoing feud with big cat conservationist Carole Baskin, there is nothing that the audience cannot stop talking about.
While the documentary places the focus of Joe, the internet has easily deemed Carole Baskin the villain of his life. Journalist and filmmaker Rick Kirkham, who spent a year living with Joe at his zoo where he filmed both Joe's internet show and his own reality show, says people are missing the big picture of the show, adding that the reality is much deeper and darker than what the Netflix shows.
"You kind of had a little bit of a heart for the guy, but you really didn't realize or get to see how evil he really could be. Not only to animals but to people," Kirkham told actor and host David Spade in 'Lights Out with David Spade' on Wednesday. The actor held his chats online due to the coronavirus lockdown.
The filmmaker did not mince his words while describing Joe Exotic as a villain: "A person who was evil towards animals and people alike, a man who killed animals for fun and one who wasn't even sure about his sexuality".
Kirkham adds that life at the zoo was "a hell of a lot worse than what you saw in the documentary. They didn't have enough time or footage to be able to show you how bad it was."
The filmmaker ruminates over the controversial personality, adding that he found Joe to be an incredibly lonely person with no real friends, a person who despite marrying several men wasn't even sure of his sexuality.
Kirkham also expressed his suspicions about the studio fire that cost him all of his reality show footage about Joe. Some of this footage would have proved to be damning evidence against Joe and his animal cruelty practices.
Those who watched the documentary had speculated a long time ago that it was Joe who started the fire that cost Kirkham all his footage. Several theories started doing the rounds, the prominent one being the possibility that he started the fire because he feared negative publicity following its release.
"Two days before the fire, Joe and I got into a very bad argument about the fact that I owned the rights to the reality show. I basically owned Joe Exotic," Rick said. "He was not happy and he made a quick turn and ran out of town for a few days, supposedly for a funeral."
Apparently, Joe also changed the locks to the studio thereby denying Kirkham access. And two days later, it was burned down to ashes.
"I have backup hard drives all the footage, but it was in a safe. But it melted the safe, the fire was that hot."
The reality of Joe's life is not portrayed in its entirety in the Netflix docuseries, warns Kirkham. Directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin have barely scratched the surface for Joe is one dark character.
"There was a footage in there of Joe actually killing animals for fun. He walked up to a tiger he didn't like and just shot it in the head."
There was another instance, points out Kirkham, when a woman brought her old horse to his zoo requesting him to take care of it. But as soon as she left, Joe asked Kirkham to grab his camera and start rolling. "And I rolled on his, he walks up to the trailer, pulls his [gun] out, shoots the horse in the head dead and laughs... and of course he fed that horse to the lions."