If you’ve seen Netflix’s new docuseries Tiger King — about Oklahoma roadside zoo owner Joe Exotic — you know every episode is more shocking than the last.
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That is especially the case for Episode 5, which deals with the lead-up to and aftermath of the tragic accident that killed Joe’s previous husband Travis Maldonado.
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The documentary uses real surveillance footage of the moment Travis died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, with him standing just off-camera.
And in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Joe’s fourth husband, Dillon Passage, said Joe actually has no idea the documentary deals with Travis’s death — and Dillon thinks it shouldn’t have been shown at all.
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“I feel like some things shouldn’t have been shown in the docuseries, like Travis’s accident in the office,” Dillon said.
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“I feel like that was very personal to Joe and that it was used for an emotional purpose and to get people more drawn into the show,” he continued. “I don’t think that’s fair to Travis. He probably would not have wanted that put all over the world.”
Dillon went on to add he hasn’t told Joe that the documentary includes Travis’s death, and Joe hasn’t been able to watch the show from prison.
“I didn’t tell him that it was in there,” Dillon said. “I feel like he’s definitely gonna be upset about it, so it’s best that he doesn’t know.”
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However, Dillon also said that while many of the documentary’s participants have spoken out against it, he “really enjoyed” it and believes the final product is “like 93%” accurate.
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“I don’t feel taken advantage [of],” he said of filmmakers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, “because they told Joe’s story true as can be.”
He went on to say he thinks the documentary captured Joe’s “wild character”:
Maybe they left out some of his more sensitive character aspects and kind of made him seem like more of an angry person who was yelling all the time. But he was definitely a wild character and he was very outspoken and he wasn’t scared to share his opinion. And I feel like they showed it.
Ellie Bate is a celebrity reporter and talent coordinator at BuzzFeed UK and is based in London.
Contact Ellie Bate at eleanor.bate@buzzfeed.com.
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