Turns out we aren’t the only ones who can’t get enough of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness on Netflix. Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto, 48, dressed up as Joe Exotic, star of the must-see docu-series and hosted a viewing party which he live-tweeted on March 26. Using the hashtag “#JaredLetoTigerKing” the Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman photoshopped a poster for the documentary, in order to feature a picture of himself with Joe’s now-iconic bleached blonde mullet. He also dressed up for the viewing party, sporting an unbuttoned gold and purple blouse, red pants, and a straw cowboy hat, as he cuddled up to a plush tiger cub.
Fans couldn’t get enough of his Joe Exotic parody. “What a time to be alive,” one follower wrote, while another was very shocked to see Jared with a mullet. “OMG! I just spit out my drink,” the fan commented. While he was live-tweeting the first episode, the Suicide Squad star made sure to remind fans of the important message behind the buzzy docu-series. “For the record no one should keep these animals in cages like this. Not ok. We need to protect exotic / endangered animals and their wild habitats,” he wrote on Twitter. We couldn’t agree more!
If you haven’t already watched it, Tiger King is the perfect distraction while you self-isolate amid the coronavirus outbreak. Now behind bars, Joe (whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage), is an eccentric blond, mullet-wearing wannabe-country singer who loves lions and tigers, which he once proudly showed off in his zoo, Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park. But his life began to unravel when he became obsessed with Carole Baskin, the owner of Big Cat Rescue sanctuary, who led a protest campaign to stop him from owning and touring with his exotic animals. A bitter online feud spiraled into a thwarted murder-for-hire plot that landed him in prison.
Joe was convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire, after a jury found him guilty in 2019 of paying a man $3,000 to travel down to Florida to murder Carole. Joe was also convicted of eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for “falsifying wildlife records” and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act. The Justice Department accused him of killing five tigers in October 2017 to free up cage space for other big cats.