The three-episode saga Chimp Crazy, which in August became HBOs most watched docuseries since 2020s McMillions, follows Tonia Haddix, a fiercely spray-tanned Missouri animal broker who has pled guilty to multiple felony charges related to the well-being of her pet chimpanzee Tonka. By the end of the series, director Eric Goode had informed PETA that Haddix was planning to euthanize Tonka to avoid legal retribution, after which the primate was relocated to a chimp sanctuary.

Initially, Haddix was furious with Goode. Hed enlisted a proxy director while shooting some of Chimp Crazy to avoid outing himself as one of the engines behind the similar Netflix megahit Tiger King, whose principal subject, Joe Exotic, is serving a 21-year prison sentence. But Haddix also relished the attention she got from Goodes cameras, eventually befriending him. Since August, he has counseled her to stop selling baby primates to people unprepared to care for them and to try to absorb the responses to Chimp Crazy that indict her practices. Instead, she lost her animal welfare license and now awaits sentencing. I have empathy for Tonia, Goode tells THR, contrasting her misguided desire to mother a dangerous great ape with the crueler exploitation committed by Tiger Kings criminalistic zoo owners. I was hopeful that maybe she could have seen what other people see about this situation. I dont know if she ever fullydid.

Chimp Crazy is eligible for an outstanding documentary or nonfiction series Emmy, the same prize for which Tiger King was nominated five years ago. (It lost to the Michael Jordan series The Last Dance.) Goode came to the subject in a roundabout way. He was working with HBO on a different animal doc that had more of a historical storyline, but when it got delayed, he pitched Chimp Crazy as a substitute. Goode intended to profile a PETA-embattled breeder named Connie Casey. She declined, but along the way, the projects proxy director, Dwayne Cunningham, met Haddix. They spent more than a year filmingwith her.

Haddix holding one of her other pet baby animals. Courtesy of HBO Goode never meant to become the guy who makes documentaries about unethical animal holders. But thats where he finds himself, able to claim partial responsibility for the Tiger King-inspired bill that forbids anyone without a proper license from owning, breeding and transporting big cats. In recent months, certain animal-welfare organizations have cited Chimp Crazy as evidence that Congress should pass the Captive Primate Safety Act.

Some skeptics have condemned Tiger King and Chimp Crazy as sensationalistic, saying they focus more on eccentric personalities than they do on the animals plights. In Goodes eyes, this criticism misses the point: By making something entertaining, like Tiger King or Chimp Crazy, you can really make a difference, which I think has been proven.

This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.