- My dad's a sports fanatic and we had a weekend off,
and he was like, "Hey, what do you want to do?
The U.S. badminton's on, you want to go check that out?"
And I was like, "What? Okay."
And we went to it and I was like,
"Holy shit, this is insane, this is an amazing sport."
Hey guys, I'm Zack Snyder and this is Growing Up Geeked.
(heroic music)
The first thing that just consumed me, probably, in 1977
was "Star Wars."
(Chewie roars)
That's where I got my love of movies,
and my mom bought me a Super 8 movie camera,
'cause I kept bugging her, you know,
just started shooting a bunch of stop action animation films
with my Star Wars characters.
I would build some big sets for them.
I remember really being obsessed with the Millennium Falcon.
- [Narrator] "Millennium Falcon from Kenner Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back Collection."
- And we'd do a lot of shots of the Falcon,
in my garage, flying.
I got a couple of really great shots, I got to be honest.
- It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.
- As I grew, sort of, in my love of cinema,
my director heroes kind of changed.
I was always a big Brian De Palma fan.
- Say hello to my little friend!
- And always a huge Scorsese fan.
- Go fuck your mother. (they laugh)
And Paul Verhoeven, of course.
I was a big fan of "Total Recall."
I was just obsessed with Schwarzenegger.
I thought he was amazing.
- No shit.
- In the eighties, I was really obsessed with, you know,
I was a bodybuilding fan.
I've trained a lot,
and a lot of the actors I've cast in my movies,
I've done physical transformations to get them in shape.
If you're a male actor and you're gonna be in my movie,
I think you're pretty sure that
I'm going to be like, "Well, you better hit the gym
'cause you're going to take your shirt off
at some point in the movie
and it better not disappoint."
I think it just comes from
my love of the golden age bodybuilders,
like Frank Zane or Serge Nubret,
who was like, basically my favorite bodybuilder.
Schwarzenegger, of course.
Franco Columbu, you know, those guys.
But it has influenced the movies in a huge way.
Look at "300" and Superman, Manhattan...
- My point exactly.
- I really did get slightly obsessed with fantasy detail.
I just thought that was a really cool thing.
You know, Syd Mead
also became a really big inspiration to me
when I ended up going to ArtCenter College of Design,
and it turns out Syd Mead also went to ArtCenter,
so it was a cool connection for me
when I finally got there
and them saying like, "Oh, Syd Mead was here."
I was like, "What the-- that's insane."
I think it was his world building concept
that I think really struck me,
and to this day, I've been really into.
I was obsessed with Frazetta,
and all of the artwork.
Frazetta is a hugely influential character
in my visual evolution.
If you look at his paintings
and how he handles the male physique,
if you have any interest in fantasy art
and you know what he does, then it was just about,
is that possible in reality?
Like the original "Conan the Barbarian."
Conan came along and Conan did that Frazetta thing
as good as I've seen it.
It was probably credit Frazetta
to my obsession of the real-life characters,
that could have real-life physiques, that can do that.
Mostly, it's because of the drama
that Frazetta could put in the painting,
the world building he could do in a single frame,
and so then when you go to make a movie,
if you can make it look like Frazetta,
then you've done a pretty good job.
- I think you're right.
- You know, I'm a badminton player.
I've been playing badminton since the early nineties.
I got a coach and started training,
and now I'm an ambassador to U.S. Olympic badminton team.
Badminton happens to be
the fastest racket sport in the world.
If you want to play it at that level,
absolutely the game's there for you,
but it also can be a game that you can play
on the first day. It's amazing fun.
Thanks for watching Growing Up Geeked.
And I really want you to check out "Army of Thieves,"
only on Netflix.
- Ready?
Set.
And...
crack!
(cogs clicking and whirring)
(energetic music builds)
- Aah!
(graphic humming)