'Tiger King' director uncages new 'Chimp Crazy' docuseries that is truly bananas
A co-director of “Tiger King” is ready to unleash another tale of exotic animals – this time, peeling back the world of “monkey moms” in “Chimp Crazy.”
“Not everything I do will always revolve around exotic animal owners,” vows director Eric Goode in an interview. But when the founder of the Turtle Conservancy discovered a group of people that keep monkeys and chimpanzees as pets, he found a story that he couldn’t pass up.
“I just was so intrigued by this idea that there were women that wanted to keep monkeys and chimpanzees as children and dress them and live with them as if they're their own children,” Goode says. “And then the story kept growing and I had more and more interesting characters in what became ‘Chimp Crazy.’”
HBO’s four-part docuseries, premiering Sunday (10 EDT/PDT and streaming weekly on Max), introduces viewers to trainer Pam Rosaire, who once breastfed a premature chimp back to health. But the real star of Goode’s new project is Tonia Haddix, a former nurse who fell head over heels for a movie star. He just happened to be a chimp named Tonka.
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After appearing in films like “George of the Jungle,” “Babe: Pig in the City” and “Buddy,” Tonka wound up at the Missouri Primate Foundation, where he met Haddix, a volunteer. Beneath her big, bleached curls, enhanced lashes and plumped lips beats a heart made to love chimps.
“I love these chimps more than anything in the world, and I mean more than anything,” Haddix says in the docuseries. “More than my kids, more than anything.”
“Human children are meant to grow up and build bonds with other people and society, but not chimpanzees,” she says. “Their mother is their whole life, and that primate feels that way about you because you become their mother.”
Goode's notoriety from "Tiger King" made subjects hesitant to speak with the director. So he hired a "proxy director," Dwayne Cunningham, who acted as the face of the docuseries, increasing access to sources.
"We just thought that (Cunningham) would play a small role to gain access to Connie Casey (owner of the Missouri Primate Foundation)," Goode says. "And then we discovered Tonia Haddix, and then Dwayne's (role) took on a life of its own, which we did not expect."
Haddix trusted Cunningham. "She just let us into her life in such an intimate way," Goode says, even entrusting them with a shocking secret to be revealed in a later episode. "We just followed her. She would say to me on a given day, 'I have to go to the tanning bed.' And I would say, 'Well, can we follow you to the tanning bed? Or, 'I have to go get my lips done.'"
But attempting to domesticate a wild animal isn’t without challenges or risks, even for the woman dubbed the “Dolly Parton of the chimps.” The docuseries revisits a 2009 attack in which a chimpanzee brought from Casey mauled Charla Nash so savagely she underwent a face transplant.
In Haddix’s case, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a lawsuit against Casey demanding improved conditions for the animals housed at the Missouri foundation. PETA enlists the help of actor Alan Cumming, who fell in love with Tonka on the set of their 1997 comedy "Buddy."
Haddix suggested Casey transfer ownership of the seven chimps over to her. After introducing the characters (and primates), the docuseries picks up as PETA files a motion to move them to a sanctuary. Except for Tonka, who goes missing as the others are relocated.
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Goode recognizes there are similarities between his latest work and “Tiger King.” However, “I think it's really a very different story,” he says. The first season of "Tiger King" offered many meme-able moments and blessed us with the phrase "Hey all you cool cats and kittens!“ while chronicling a tense rivalry between Oklahoma zoo proprietor Joe Exotic and big cat sanctuary owner Carole Baskin. But "Chimp Crazy" feels noticeably sadder.
"Maybe it's because it's a chimpanzee, and the closeness that the subjects have with these animals," Goode says. "In ‘Tiger King,’ there wasn't that intimacy or affection to one tiger, and so I think that it's maybe more emotional, although there's a lot of surprises.”
Goode hopes viewers walk away with an understanding “that these are our brothers and our sisters,” the director says of the chimpanzees, whose DNA so closely resembles that of humans. “They really are complex social creatures, just like us.”
