10 Questions: Adam Savage, MythBusters host, 46

THE MythBusters host talks about working on Star Wars, blowing stuff up, and his own personal “happiness machine”.

140628 TWAM TV: Mythbusters. 2014. 2 Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage. Credit Robert Fujioka Studios Inc Picture: Captioned As

You had an early start in showbiz, didn’t you?

Yes, my dad was an artist who made animated short films for Sesame Street. When I was about 10 I did the voiceovers for some of them. I still make $20 a year in royalties from it.

Before MythBusters you worked in special effects. Any highlights? Working on the first Star Wars prequel. When Star Wars came out in 1977 it was the first time I had an idea about what I wanted to do for a living. So when I was hired in 1998 to build model spaceships for Episode I: The Phantom Menace, it was a dream come true. I slipped in at the end of an era because after that the spaceships were all done with CGI.

You’ve done 12 years of MythBusters. Will you ever run out of myths to test? I really don’t think so. There’s an infinite number of ridiculous ways in which people think the world works; as long as people believe strange things, we’ve got a job. A third of the myths we test are suggested by fans through social media.

Has any myth been rejected as too dangerous to test? There’s one about a truckful of liquid oxygen that spills its payload; it reacts with the asphalt to turn the entire road into a bomb. We researched it enough to learn that liquid oxygen is some of the scariest stuff on Earth. If you soaked a rag in it and hit it with a hammer it would blow your hand off. And it’s unpredictable, too, which makes it even scarier. So we’ve let that one sit.

Firearms are a recurring theme. What’s your position on gun control? I think guns need to be murderously controlled – that’s a vital policy for a civilised society. Personally, I find guns both terrifying and fascinating. I don’t like holding something that’s built to kill things. But they’re beautiful pieces of machinery, and I’m also a child of my culture – I’m fascinated by guns because I grew up on a diet of action movies.

What’s the most fun you can have with a handful of C-4 explosive? I’m particularly fond of blowing up cars, myself. Looking at all the pieces after we’re done is endlessly entertaining.

You and your co-star Jamie Hyneman aren’t friends, are you? No. But talk to many business partners and you’ll find people who get along, who have great respect for each other, but who are absolutely not friends. Jamie and I have an interesting kind of marriage; we live in each others’ pockets but in 20 years we’ve never had dinner alone together.

You have a strong obsessive streak. What’s the downside? It makes it very difficult to finish things. When you’re looking to control every tiny detail on a project, choosing a stopping point becomes arbitrary because there’s always something more to do.

You have twin sons, aged 15. Do you impress them, or embarrass them? Both. I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career but it’s not going to last forever. I know that because I was in my mid-30s when MythBusters came along – I’d been divorced, I’d had multiple jobs; I knew failure. But my sons have grown up knowing me as the host of the show. The real trick for me in raising them is helping them to see outside the weird bubble we live in.

Can you tell us about your “happiness machine”? That’s the R2-D2 I built! [A copy of the Star Wars droid]. He’s fully remote-controlled and motorised, and as accurate as possible to the original in every way. He’s called my happiness machine because it’s impossible to be in a bad mood if R2-D2 is in your house.

MythBusters: Behind the Myths Tour opens in Melbourne on August 16