Nicolas Cage is playing Tiger King Joe Exotic in a new show about the animal park owner, a representative for Cage confirmed on Monday. But why wait to see just how the Oscar-winning actor will pull off the role? Talk show host Jimmy Fallon, filming from his home for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, managed to don a mullet, sunglasses and an appropriately glitzy shirt to give viewers a preview.
Fallon's obviously familiar not just with Cage's sometimes overly dramatic style of acting, but Joe Exotic's tangled life. Fallon-as-Cage-as-Joe rails against nemesis Carole Baskin, tries to recruit grandmas and babies to pet tiger cubs, and naturally throws in a twangy country song, all while sounding like Cage.
Cage is taking on his first-ever television role to play Joe Exotic in the upcoming eight-episode scripted series. It's not yet known where or when the show will air, but it's based on a Texas Monthly magazine article about Joe and his universe. The real Joe Exotic is serving a 22-year sentence in a Texas prison for attempting to kill Baskin. His story was told in the immensely popular Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, which premiered March 20 on the streaming service.
