Comedian David Spade is breaking his silence on the possibility of playing Joe Exotic (real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage) in in a Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness film or television adaptation. After Exotic stated his desire to have either Spade or Brad Pitt step into his shoes, Spade shared his thoughts during a recent appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“I don’t know. It depends. There’s [my talk] show and there’s getting time off and all that,” Spade said during his Thursday appearance, according to Us Weekly. “Joe Exotic said me or Brad Pitt. I see Brad Pitt at auditions all the time and it’s always tense. You know what Brad does? He brings his Oscar to auditions now, which I don’t think you’re allowed to do that in SAG.”
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Spade, who has been discussing the Netflix docuseries his late-night show Lights Out with David Spade, added that any adaptations would need to be “more dramatic” to get the details right. He said that he also believed Pitt may not be a perfect match to play Exotic, either.
“I think Joe is a little too squirrelly for Brad. That might be wishful thinking, Brad is so studly and I’m a little more squirrelly,” he said, going on to suggest that Woody Harrelson would make a good Jeff Lowe.
Just days after Tiger King debuted on Netflix, drawing in more than 34 million viewers within its first 10 days, directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin revealed that the currently incarcerated Exotic told them his dream castings. Noting that both Pitt and Spade were at the top of the list, Chaiklin said that Exotic “doesn’t refer to David Spade as David Spade — he refers to him as ‘Joe Dirt.’”
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight shortly after, Spade had addressed Exotic’s remarks, shooting down the idea. He also suggested that Matthew McConaughey play manager John Reinke, Channing Tatum portray John Finlay, and Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow take on the role of Doc Antle’s wives.
“I don’t know if I could,” he said. “That;s why I don’t really push it or jump in on it, with all these funny debates. It just looks too fun… I know Woody Harrelson is funny as that guy Joe.”
While there is no movie adaptation known to be in the works, SNL star Kate McKinnon is slated to portray Carole Baskin in an upcoming biopic based on Wondery’s podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King. Meanwhile, all seven episodes of Tiger King are available for streaming on Netflix, with an eighth episode, set up as a reunion, set to drop on Sunday.
