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Tiger King: Louis Theroux says he ‘liked’ Joe Exotic

'Joe may have started with good intentions but he lost his way'

Isobel Lewis
Monday 04 May 2020 07:47 BST
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Tiger King's Joe Exotic on Louis Theroux documentary in 2011

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Louis Theroux didn’t hold back while sharing his opinion on Tiger King’s Joe Exotic during a re-run of his documentary, America’s Most Dangerous Pets.

Back in 2011, Theroux filmed a segment with Exotic for the one-off BBC show, which was broadcast on BBC Two again on Sunday night following the success of Netflix’s own series about the former zoo owner.

Giving fans the chance to ask questions about the Netflix star, Theroux described Exotic as “not intimidating. Friendly. A bit all over the place”.

He continued in answer to another user: “Yes I liked him but I also knew he was spinning me a line.”

As the show progressed, the documentarian explained: “I sometimes had the feeling Joe wasn’t totally across his brief, conservation-wise. Like he couldn’t remember his own hype.

“Joe may have started with good intentions but he lost his way.”

In a recent interview, Theroux had previously admitted to enjoying Tiger King, but being frustrated by the lack of focus on the animals themselves.

“I did think the tiger perspective was slightly lost, that was my little quibble,” he said.

“I sort of thought, there is an animal rights story here which they kind of did at the end a bit but you didn’t see the foreground.”

Tiger King is available to watch on Netflix now. America's Most Dangerous Pets is available on BBC iPlayer.

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