Joe Rogan Experience #2114 - Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder joins Joe Rogan for a wide-ranging conversation about his filmmaking career and creative philosophy. He recounts how 300 was a green-screen labor of love shot in 60 days, why he loves deconstructing comic-book myths like Batman and Watchmen, and how his director's cuts were born from studio battles. The pair riff on bodybuilding extremes, Spartan culture, Formula 1, golf trick shots, video-game addiction, and how Netflix's distribution model lets weird, boutique films reach huge audiences. Snyder also speaks candidly about losing his daughter to suicide during Justice League and how the fandom rallied to raise money for suicide prevention.

• 300 was shot in 60 days with no director's cut because every frame they filmed made the final movie.
  00:03:38
• There was zero CGI used on the actors' bodies in 300 because they couldn't afford it.
  00:07:47
• Snyder left Justice League after losing his daughter to suicide during post-production.
  01:39:43
• Fans raised over a million dollars for the suicide-prevention foundation AFSP in support of the Snyders.
  01:41:17
• Snyder's mother gifted him a Heavy Metal magazine subscription as a kid without realizing it was an adult publication.
  01:21:56
• Netflix let Snyder make hard R-rated three-hour director's cuts of Rebel Moon as a bonus alongside the PG-13 versions.
  01:21:56
• Snyder's brother Sam died in a car accident when Zack was 13, which shaped his views on religion and spirituality.
  02:08:52
• The MPAA ratings board kept rating Batman v Superman 'R' because they disliked the idea of Batman fighting Superman.
  01:31:17

• Snyder's son Eli played the young Rorschach in Watchmen and was second-unit director on Rebel Moon.
  00:05:13
• Snyder's trainer Alessandro trained the cast for Rebel Moon and is a competitive bodybuilder in his 60s.
  00:13:29
• Alessandro once stood next to Ronnie Coleman backstage at Night of the Champions in San Francisco.
  00:15:32
• Spartan boys went on the agoge around age seven and the elite 'crypteia' were encouraged to kill helots.
  00:25:51
• Formula 1 drivers have off-the-charts reaction times and develop very thick necks from G-forces.
  00:47:35
• Phil Mickelson can hit a full pitching-wedge swing that arcs a ball over a person and into their hands.
  00:52:46
• Snyder spent ten years shooting TV commercials before directing his first feature, Dawn of the Dead.
  01:00:05
• Watchmen holds a record for the most male frontal nudity (Dr. Manhattan) of any studio film.
  01:38:39
• Philip Glass personally approved licensing his music for the Dr. Manhattan birth sequence.
  01:38:39
• Snyder owns the airplanes needed to film an adaptation of Richard Bach's book Illusions.
  02:06:46

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