Gello and Joanna caught up with Josh Malerman, writer of the best selling book Birdbox, recently adapted by Netflix.
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00:00Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, my name is Jello.
00:03And I'm Joanna.
00:04Of course, on the all-new 105.1 The Bounce, Detroit's throwback hip-hop and R&B in studio right now.
00:09I just want to tell you something.
00:11This guy is responsible for taking away, maybe, I would say, the last three weeks of my life.
00:17Because I haven't been able to find anything to do besides watch Bird Box on Netflix on repeat to try to understand the movie.
00:25And because I didn't quite understand the movie, because I'm not that smart, I'm actually kind of dumb.
00:28I figured the best way to do it is get the author of the actual book, Bird Box, Josh Mallerman-Dent Studio!
00:38Hi, everybody.
00:40So, did I say it correctly? Mallerman-Dent?
00:42Yeah.
00:42I said it right?
00:43Josh, let me ask you something, man.
00:45How is this, I don't want to say newfound fame, because you've got a band, and this isn't the only book that you've actually written.
00:53But this newfound, like, intense Hollywood fame.
00:58What's happening to you right now?
00:59You got on all black and you got brown leather clothes.
01:02What's going on?
01:02They match your shoes.
01:03They match your shoes.
01:03I'm different now.
01:05I mean, it feels like I'm standing in a wind tunnel, man.
01:07It feels like there's like a hundred, like, hair dryers directed at me.
01:10But it's a warm wind, and it's like, I don't mind being overwhelmed by this.
01:16It's, like, exciting.
01:17And, you know, I talk to my friends and my fiancé about it, and it's like, right now I'm trying to juggle, like, relishing this moment,
01:26while, like, hey, man, you also have to get other work done.
01:28Yeah.
01:28And that's sort of, like, the pain I'm on right now.
01:33Now, we're talking about 45 million accounts have watched this movie on Netflix, right?
01:39Which is crazy, yes.
01:40When you, the first phone call that you got where you knew, like, this thing was taking off,
01:46unlike anything you probably had imagined, you probably figured a few people would watch it,
01:50but not being the number one watched movie on Netflix.
01:55The first phone call, what was it like?
01:57Because you told me you were going in and out answering phone calls.
02:00Yeah, so even the night that the movie was released, like, there was no sense of what was going to happen
02:05and what has happened.
02:06Like, we had a screening in Troy, invited some friends out.
02:10It felt like that was, like, the peak of it.
02:12Like, the movie's coming out.
02:14Oh, my God.
02:15And then anything after that would have been just, like, gravy, right?
02:18Yeah.
02:18I don't think Netflix, I mean, I don't know how they could have been prepared for this.
02:23I don't think Sandra Bullock was prepared for this.
02:24And I know that me and my, like, my team and crew, that we were completely unprepared for this.
02:29Yeah.
02:30But when I realized what was happening was the day after the movie came out,
02:35my girl Allison and I drove up north, because that's where she's from, the UP.
02:39And we went through, like, a snowstorm to get up there.
02:42It's, like, 5 a.m. when we arrive.
02:43We go to sleep.
02:44And at that point, we have a movie out.
02:46I got a movie out.
02:46Yeah.
02:47And I woke up to, like, a thousand notifications on my phone.
02:50And I was like, oh, Allison, you got to get up.
02:52I think something's going on with this.
02:54And it just kept getting crazier and crazier and crazier.
02:58Yeah, because it all exploded over the holiday break.
03:01Yeah.
03:01Because I know Jello was off one day, and I was off one day, and we both talked about it at separate times.
03:07But I was actually, I'm going to admit this, I was nervous to watch it by myself.
03:10My husband was out of town because I thought I would be a little freaked out.
03:13That's great.
03:14And then I watched it, and I'm like, oh, my God.
03:16And you're glued to it.
03:17You're just glued to the movie the whole time.
03:20Yeah, well, then you're the perfect audience, you know.
03:22Like, there are people telling me, oh, I get too scared.
03:25I'm like, then you're perfect.
03:26Yes.
03:26That's like saying I laugh too hard.
03:28I'm not going to watch this comedy.
03:29Right, right.
03:30I heard that the book is scarier than the movie.
03:33Like, there's things in the book that doesn't necessarily happen in the movie, which makes me want to ask you, like, where did the thoughts come from?
03:41Because one of my favorite writers is Stephen King.
03:43Obviously, we know when he goes to sleep, he has, like, these weird psychedelic dreams.
03:47Maybe he's doing peyote.
03:48I don't know.
03:49But then that's where the inspiration for the movies come from.
03:52Where did the idea from this movie, where did the idea come from?
03:56All right.
03:57So I pretty much operate where I finish one story and then I just start the next, right?
04:01And somewhere along the line, I wrote the rough draft for Bird Box in 06, which that puts into perspective, like, how bizarre this moment is for me.
04:10Yeah.
04:11I've had this story with me for 12 years and all of a sudden this is happening now.
04:15It's like, holy moly, right?
04:16Right.
04:17But the rough draft was, like, a complete mess, you know, compared to what ended up coming out.
04:21But still, all the ideas were there.
04:23And I had – I just liked the vision, this idea of a blindfolded mother with two blindfolded kids and having to navigate – having to flee something, you know, having to navigate a river without being able to see.
04:35I'm like, that is just a – that just sounded like a precarious situation, to say the least.
04:40So I started there and I just started writing, you know, okay, Mallory's in the boat and the boy's in the – and then I was like, hey, wait a minute.
04:48What are they fleeing?
04:50Like, what are they trying to get away from?
04:52And this, you know, this is like a page or two in writing.
04:54You're like, man, I got to know what's going on here.
04:57And it kind of struck me, like, what wouldn't they be able to look at, right?
05:00Well, what about the – like, what – if you could – if you could imagine for a second, like, a concept coming to town, right?
05:07Like, take, for example, the concept of infinity.
05:10Yeah.
05:11Like, we are incapable of comprehending infinity.
05:13All right, so what happens if your doorbell rang, you open the door, and infinity is standing on your front porch?
05:19What would happen to you if there's this thing in the room with you that you literally cannot comprehend?
05:23Well, maybe you would be driven mad.
05:26And I was like, oh, man, this works.
05:28So Mallory and these two kids are fleeing – I don't want to say a concept, but if you can imagine sort of infinity personified.
05:35And so the book, it leans heavily on that rather than the idea of, like, a worst fear or that.
05:42It's more like there's a thing in the water and a thing that's come to, like – come to the world.
05:47No one really knows how.
05:48But really what it is is just something – it's like something incomprehensible that's driving everyone mad.
05:52Well, you should see – Jell and I tried to capture what we thought the thing looked like.
05:58Right.
05:58And we both made pictures that we will have to show you.
06:01Oh, my God.
06:02Mine kind of looked like Lionel from Thundercats, if you remember that cartoon.
06:06I do.
06:07And then she had, like, this brain-looking thing that I think I saw in a cigarette commercial somewhere.
06:12So we were trying to put a figure on what it was.
06:15And I'm glad that you said that because I couldn't figure it out.
06:18That was my reason for watching it so many times.
06:20I couldn't figure out what were they running from.
06:23I wanted to see what it looked like so bad to where it started to drive me crazy.
06:27Yeah, yeah.
06:28You know what I mean?
06:28It's like – the book is like a Rorschach test, you know?
06:30It's like, what do you see here?
06:32What do you see?
06:33It's almost like putting, like, a magnifying glass up to the concept of what we're afraid of most is the unknown.
06:40Yeah.
06:40Because literally the monster is unknown.
06:43It's not, you know, what's on the other side of the door and you open the door and it's a werewolf.
06:48Like, now it's not unknown.
06:49Now it's known, right?
06:50And you're still scared.
06:51But so to me, yeah, this has always been like an inkblot, this book and the movie now also.
06:56Netflix, they've got to be, you know, beating down your doors trying to give you different offers now that this book was so successful.
07:02Being the number one movie on Netflix, they got – what do you got now, Josh?
07:06What do you got?
07:06Well, and you have a new book coming out.
07:08I do.
07:08I have a new book called Inspection coming out in April.
07:12And as goes what you're asking, a couple of the books were optioned before the movie came out.
07:19But a couple of the other books and there's another, like, two or three that we're shopping right now.
07:26And, yeah, we are talking to Netflix about one and we are talking to them about maybe two and stuff.
07:31So, yeah.
07:31I can't say too much about all that.
07:33I know you can.
07:34But it's exciting.
07:34I don't want to feel like I'm running for office or something.
07:36Oh, it's been wonderful, guys.
07:38Yep, nothing going on here.
07:39But for people that do write, how does that whole thing work?
07:42Like, how does it go from, of course, you publish the book and then it transitions into being a movie.
07:46For those that do write and want to possibly get their movie made by Netflix, how did that happen?
07:52How did that come from?
07:52Well, okay.
07:53So, I imagine, like, everyone in this position, I've had a few just key seminal breaks along the way.
08:00And one of them was meeting this guy named Ryan Lewis, who's my manager.
08:04My age.
08:05Met him when I was living at Joanna and my mutual friend's house.
08:10We used to drink a lot.
08:10We used to drink a lot back in the day.
08:12I still do.
08:13It's fine.
08:14I met him over the phone.
08:18He lives in L.A.
08:19He's a manager who had got a hold of a book of mine called Goblin.
08:25And he called me and he's like, hey, I would like to represent you.
08:27I don't represent any fiction writers.
08:29He represents, like, screenwriters and a couple, like, nonfiction, that kind of thing.
08:34But he was like, I think that we can do something together.
08:35And he's just this really laid back, intelligent, like, everything he's saying sounds, like, good to me.
08:41I'm like, this guy is cool, you know.
08:43I'm like, all right, yeah, let's work together.
08:45So we start.
08:46I had Bird Box already at the time.
08:48And I start, you know, we start rewriting it, meaning he's telling me, like, maybe there should be, you know, maybe this scene's unnecessary.
08:55Maybe there should be less housemates, maybe, like, these kind of things.
08:58And I'm, like, rewriting.
08:59And the whole time we're doing that, he's saying to me, the minute this gets picked up by a publishing house, I believe I can get this option for film.
09:06And I don't, I had no real reason to believe him.
09:10And because he didn't have another fiction dude with him or anything.
09:14Yeah.
09:14But I believed him the whole time.
09:16I'm like, well, Ryan, I would tell my girl, well, Ryan says it's going to work.
09:19It's going to work.
09:19You felt good about it.
09:21I just felt good about it.
09:22And so I think Ryan and I worked on that book for a year and a half and then got it in the hands of an agent.
09:29She shopped it.
09:30It got picked up by HarperCollins.
09:31And, like, three months later, Ryan had sold it to Universal Studios.
09:36Wow.
09:36Awesome, man.
09:36And Universal bought it first.
09:38And then Netflix got it from Universal.
09:40So to answer that question, I mean, there's, I guess, I guess there's some luck involved.
09:46But I, as you've heard other people say, like, I feel like I was ready for that luck or something.
09:51Because I had Bird Box and I had a number of other books.
09:54And I had been, you know, flailing as an artist for so long.
09:59It was like I was, like, already, like, humble about it.
10:01And Ryan tells me his ideas.
10:03I'm like, yes, let's do those ideas.
10:04There was no ego involved in this whole experience with him.
10:07But meeting Ryan Lewis was like a break for me.
10:10Well, and it was your time.
10:11It was your time.
10:13Yeah.
10:13Yeah, your time to shine.
10:15Tell me a little bit about yourself real quick, man.
10:17Because, like, you're obviously way smarter than me, man.
10:20And, like, you're in a band.
10:22You're writing books.
10:22And he's from here.
10:23And you're from here.
10:24Yeah.
10:25And, like, did you go to, like, Michigan State?
10:27I did.
10:27I went to Michigan State.
10:28Go white.
10:29Okay.
10:30And you graduated from Michigan State.
10:32Barely.
10:34So what happens after that?
10:36I thought you were going to say what happened there.
10:37I'm like, oh, I did.
10:38I had some stories.
10:39What happens after that?
10:40How did you, did you, were you writing at an early age?
10:42Have you just been writing?
10:43Yep.
10:43I tried to write a novel when I was in fifth grade.
10:47I tried to write, like, a novel.
10:48And I don't, it still bugs me that I didn't finish it.
10:51Because, like, how awesome would that be right now to bust that out?
10:53Yes.
10:54Be like, hey, everybody, here's the first book I wrote.
10:57It's about, like, a dog in outer space or something.
10:59But from there, it led to just, like, the most embarrassing, like, emo poems.
11:04Like, you can imagine, in high school and, you know, like, everything's so, poor me and
11:08everything, the world's so dark, you know.
11:10That led to short stories.
11:12And that's where things started to get exciting for me.
11:15I had the first, it's always been, like, a horror slant.
11:19I'm just, like, thrilled by that and always have been.
11:22And the first short story I ever wrote was about this photographer shooting this model.
11:27And he's like, she's got such a look in her eye.
11:30And, like, what is it?
11:30She can't place it.
11:31And he follows her into her dressing room.
11:33Sounds like a novella.
11:34You know what a novella is?
11:35I don't know.
11:35I sure do.
11:36And he follows her into the dressing room.
11:38And he's like, like, what, you know.
11:40And he witnesses her, like, she has two glass eyes.
11:42And she, like, pulls them both out.
11:43He's like, oh, my God.
11:45Like, the look in her eye isn't even real.
11:47Like, that's the first, you know, this is the high school story, right?
11:50But that was a big one for me because it was like, I just finished an idea.
11:54And from there, it's been, I tried to write novels for about 10 years, including while I was going to Michigan State.
12:00And that's pretty much why I barely graduated is because, I mean, a 10-page paper in college sounds like a lot.
12:07Yeah.
12:07And I had written, like, 350 pages for a novel that was, like, unfinished.
12:12And it's so strange because, in hindsight, the book didn't seem difficult to me.
12:17But the 10 pages did.
12:18Right, right.
12:18Like, I'm like, oh, my God.
12:20I got to do 10-page double-spaced.
12:22Meanwhile, there's, like, a stack of papers next to me.
12:24That you can write.
12:25No problem.
12:26So that led to, like, 10 years of failing at writing a novel.
12:30And the only thing I would ever call a failure in a novel is just not finishing it.
12:35So between ages, like, 19 and 29, I tried it four or five times, just could not seem to land one.
12:43It's a strange, even 300 pages deep.
12:45I mean, just write the end at that point.
12:47Right, right, right.
12:47So it just stopped in the middle.
12:49Like, good for you, but it's done.
12:49Is that not the four real words?
12:50You write the beginning and then the end and then fill in the rest?
12:53Yeah.
12:53Or no, literally write the words, the end.
12:55Like, let's just move on from this.
12:58Let's get through this thing, man.
12:59And I could not land those books.
13:02At age 29, I had a breakthrough where I did.
13:05I finished one.
13:06And then in the 14 years since, I've written, like, 28 of them.
13:09It's been an absolute.
13:10Wow, you have 28 books?
13:11I do.
13:11Wow.
13:12And then I met Ryan Lewis and the agent and everyone when I was about 12 books deep.
13:18So Bird Box was the first book to come out.
13:20But, I mean, I have a crate at home, my God, with, like, 20-something more.
13:24There's, like, inspection would be, like, book six or something.
13:27But there's just, like, a mountain of rough drafts at home.
13:29Well, in the meantime, you were in a rock band, The High Strung,
13:32which I did not know until recently, that the theme song for Shameless,
13:36which is one of my favorite shows, and it sucks.
13:38Hey, man, I really don't like you, dude, at all.
13:42Like, you're writing theme songs, you're writing bands,
13:44you got multiple views on Netflix and books.
13:47My life sucks.
13:48Hey, Joanna, you picked the wrong guy, man.
13:50I love you, Jeff.
13:51But you picked the wrong guy.
13:53I should all go with Josh Moore.
13:55Well, and he's engaged now, too.
13:56Yeah, to Allison.
13:57We're going to do it.
13:59We're going to get married, and we just got to do it.
14:00But it has been hard.
14:01Are you sure?
14:02Yeah.
14:03Are you sure you're ready to do that?
14:04Yeah, yeah.
14:05No, Allison's, like, a super brilliant, bizarre artist.
14:09I love you, Allison.
14:10I'm just joking.
14:11Yeah, no, no, no.
14:11I can't wait for her to hear this.
14:13She's super cute.
14:14Yeah.
14:15Oh, she is.
14:15Yeah, she's.
14:16And we want to do it, but, like, and even before the movie,
14:20everything has just been, like, sort of escalating.
14:22You're like, oh, we're going to get married this summer.
14:24Well, I was asked to go to Brazil and Turkey because Bird Box is a bestseller there.
14:28All right, well, let's go there.
14:29We'll talk about this marriage thing later.
14:31Yeah.
14:32And then after that, oh, well, now Unbury Carol's coming out,
14:34and, oh, it looks like we're going to option this thing here.
14:36And it's just been like, where in there do you get married, man?
14:40Right.
14:40But you just got to do it.
14:41Yeah, no.
14:41Even if you just go to a courthouse, you just got to do it.
14:43But that is not her and my style to just go to a courthouse.
14:47Yeah.
14:47So I'm trying to figure it out.
14:48Do you ever think about the fact, Josh, that you are quite possibly responsible
14:52for the resurrection of Sandra Bullock's career?
14:56Like, okay, she's a legend.
14:57We know that.
14:57As an actress, she's a legend.
14:59Yeah.
14:59But she's on the tip of everybody's tongue because of this movie.
15:03Right.
15:03Has she given you a phone call?
15:04Has she said thank you?
15:06No.
15:06Like, has she sent you a bouquet of flowers?
15:07Nothing?
15:08Well, I met her, you know.
15:09I was on set when they were filming the scene where the car flips.
15:13Yeah.
15:14I was on set, so her and Sarah Paulson, that was crazy to walk in and see her dressed
15:20as Mallory and Sarah Paulson as her sister and driving a Wagoneer, which is what they
15:23drive in the car.
15:24Yeah.
15:25I was like, oh, my God.
15:26That was sort of the moment of like, this is really happening.
15:28This is real.
15:28Yeah, this is real.
15:30And she is hot in person.
15:31She is on movie.
15:32Sandra Bullock?
15:33I got a thing for Sandra, dude.
15:35Yeah, she is.
15:38He's like, yeah, okay.
15:38He didn't even lie.
15:39Yeah, she is.
15:41Let's move on.
15:42The area where they were filming, it was all like lit.
15:47It was like in a sound studio or soundstage, and it was all like lit up, and everywhere
15:51outside of that area was like in shadow.
15:54So like the food cart and the crew and me and everyone, we're just like in the shadows
15:57while they're filming.
15:59At the end of filming, the producer came up to me and he's like, hey, Josh, I want you
16:02to come this way.
16:03I want you to meet someone.
16:03I'm like, oh, my God.
16:04I'm like chewing my fingers off.
16:06I'm about to meet Sandra Bullock.
16:07I'm like so freaked out.
16:08And I came out, like he kind of led me to her under those bright lights, and then everyone
16:13sort of just like filed into those shadows, and I like met her.
16:17It felt like I was like meeting her on stage.
16:19Like the clouds opened up and there's a light shined down.
16:23Yes, it really did.
16:24And I was thinking like, do you have these lights at home?
16:28They're part of my rider.
16:29They go with me everywhere.
16:30Yeah.
16:30Yeah.
16:31It was, I met Sandra Bullock under the bright lights, and she was just funny.
16:35Like the very first thing she said to me was, I know, we've ruined everything.
16:39We took your brilliant book and we destroyed it.
16:41You hate us.
16:41And I'm like, oh, stop it.
16:42I'm so freaking glad it's in your hands.
16:44I can't stand you guys.
16:45Yeah, right.
16:45Because the movie and the book are totally different.
16:48The book has a different ending, right?
16:50No, but see, that's weird.
16:51I see all these articles.
16:53I saw, the first article I saw was like the Netflix, the original ending was much darker.
16:58And I'm like, was it?
16:59And then I started thinking about it, and I guess it was.
17:02But I don't want, it's hard for me to say what it was without ruining this, right?
17:05Right, right, yeah.
17:06I mean, I could, or I could just say it.
17:07Listen, I'm going to read the book.
17:08Yes.
17:09Okay, I've watched the movie.
17:10It entices me to want to read the book because I'm a reader.
17:14But don't worry about spoilers.
17:15So what, what is it?
17:17How does it work?
17:18The ending?
17:18How does the book end?
17:19So in the book, when they arrive at the School of the Blind, like almost everyone there had gouged
17:23their own eyes out in order.
17:25Oh, so they weren't blind from birth in the movie they were.
17:28In order to.
17:30This is great.
17:31This is totally great.
17:33They pulled a Houston.
17:33You remember that rapper Houston?
17:35The guy who sings the song?
17:35I like that.
17:36Yeah.
17:37Yeah.
17:37He pulled his own eyeball out in the hotel room.
17:39Oh yeah, I remember that.
17:40Yeah, he said God told them to do it.
17:41So.
17:42Wow.
17:42He really did.
17:43They all gouged their eyes out.
17:45Yeah.
17:46Most everyone there had like done that.
17:48The kids too?
17:49Because there were a few kids there.
17:51No, I don't know if there were kids in the book, but when Mallory and boy and girl arrive
17:56at that school, like one of the first things they see is, um, is like a group of people
18:00walking by with like scarred eyes.
18:02Yeah.
18:02And they're like, we don't have to worry about anything here anymore.
18:04We can't see.
18:05Oh my gosh.
18:06But like, can you imagine if the movie ended like that, that would, I mean, is that why
18:10Netflix stayed away from it?
18:12Thinking about everyone.
18:12It's funny though, because I, they should have ended it that way because I was, I was
18:17so upset that it just ended and I was like, well, what are they running from?
18:21The book sort of, I mean, just ends also at that moment, but it's just a darker beat,
18:27but I never even considered it that because what I, for a long time, how I wish I had ended
18:32it was that after all that, Mallory just ends up like at another house with like seven
18:37housemates that are like, we think we figured it out.
18:39And it's like, oh no.
18:40Yeah.
18:40It's like, we just like, I'm just back where I started.
18:42Right.
18:43Which would have just been so cruel to her.
18:45Right.
18:45Right.
18:45But like the school for the blind felt to me when I was writing, it felt a little too
18:49right.
18:50I'm like, well, finally, I'm going to put a school for the blind.
18:52And, but then it was, but the idea of them like having blinded themselves by then, I
18:56thought that ending I wrote was a little too like fluffy.
18:58Yeah.
18:59But then now I see all these articles at the movie.
19:01That was a darker, yeah.
19:02Yeah.
19:03Yeah.
19:03Well, and where did boy and girl come from?
19:05Because I loved that.
19:06That was like.
19:07Don't you just want to call your kid or boy and girl the whole time?
19:10Wait, what if someone does that?
19:12I'm sure there is.
19:12Someone probably will now.
19:13Somebody is.
19:15So in the book, I'm just, I can't believe how much I'm spoiling.
19:19In the book, Tom dies in the birth scene with everyone else.
19:23And so Mallory's alone for those five years.
19:25Was Tom black in the book?
19:27Well, that, this is one of the beauties of the book.
19:29There's no descriptors of anybody.
19:31There we go.
19:31Of anybody.
19:32Like, it says Mallory has dark hair and that's about it.
19:34Oh, okay.
19:35That says Tom.
19:35She could have been anything.
19:36She could have been anything.
19:37They could have all been anything.
19:38But in the movie, Tom was hot.
19:40Yeah.
19:41All women say that.
19:42Tom was hot.
19:42Yeah.
19:42All women say that.
19:43Yeah.
19:43They love him.
19:44My agent loved him.
19:45She seemed like, they seemed all nervous.
19:48We were in a hallway after the premiere in New York.
19:51Me, my agent, Trevante Rose, and a friend of his.
19:54Yeah.
19:54And my, I've never seen my agent so nervous before.
19:57He's so hot.
19:59I would be nervous too.
20:00You know what's crazy is the fact that we have the actual author of Bird Box in studio.
20:05We have to ask you some questions about the movie specifically, and I want you to answer
20:10them your way, okay?
20:12We're not talking about the book.
20:13We're talking about the movie.
20:14And these questions come from the listeners, so it gets a little risque.
20:18Let me just say this, okay?
20:20Question for you, Josh.
20:22How come Mallory is unaffected by the, what they call entities, when the apocalypse first
20:29hits?
20:30You can see her in the car.
20:31Her, I believe it was her friend she's with.
20:33Her sister, yeah.
20:33Her sister, she's affected, but Mallory's not.
20:35So why is that?
20:36She just got lucky.
20:36She didn't see it.
20:37She was looking in the back.
20:38She was the phone rang in the movie, and she looked in the backseat, and Sarah Paulson
20:42saw it.
20:43Yeah, she just got lucky.
20:44The book is littered with those things also.
20:46Like, how did this guy get through this?
20:47Well, if somebody survived, I mean, they just didn't see it.
20:50Yeah.
20:51They got lucky.
20:51Did you have one?
20:52You have one?
20:52Well, on the tale of that, when Sarah Paulson and Sandra Bullock locked eyes, it doesn't
20:58go from one person to the next, right?
21:00You have to actually see the entity.
21:03And different people, like, process the entity differently, right?
21:07Yeah.
21:07Like, if you're already crazy, you try to make everybody else go crazy, but if you're not
21:11crazy, you then end up killing yourself or something like that.
21:13That's how I broke it down, right?
21:15Is that accurate?
21:16Well, yeah.
21:17Yeah, exactly.
21:18And then in the book, it's just, like, theorized.
21:21Like, what if you're already mad?
21:22What happens?
21:23Right.
21:23You can't go crazy twice.
21:25And what does crazy twice look like?
21:27Damn it.
21:27You're so good.
21:28Yeah.
21:29Why am I not this damn smart?
21:31Let me ask you this.
21:32How in the hell did Tom stay so well-groomed for five years?
21:37Because he's so hot.
21:39It's totally natural, man.
21:41That guy didn't shave or shower for five years.
21:43It's just how he looks.
21:43And how was he so fit for five years straight?
21:47Like, he didn't gain an ounce.
21:49He didn't lose an ab.
21:50Like, you're malnourished.
21:52You're not eating the right food.
21:53He's working out.
21:53I think anxiety does wonders for a body.
21:56That's right.
21:58Another question that we got is, how could those stale-ass Pop-Tarts that they eat
22:04in the movie taste so good?
22:05They were so good.
22:06No, the best line is she's like, this is what strawberry tastes like.
22:09And we're all like, no, it's not.
22:11It's not.
22:11That's not what strawberry tastes like.
22:12This is the biggest lie you've told them.
22:15And you have Boy and Girl in the Boat with Mallory, played by Sandra Bullock on the Netflix
22:20movie, Bird Box.
22:22How was she able to row a boat with two kids for over 40 hours?
22:27Come on, Josh.
22:28Give me an answer.
22:28We need answers, and we need them now.
22:31I think that one, people, I think that's a suspend your disbelief moment.
22:37Yes.
22:37But in the book, she does run into the banks often.
22:42Yeah.
22:43And one time when she does, there's a bunch of wolves there.
22:45Oh.
22:46And it's like a totally freaky scene where she's like, oh, sorry guys, we're stuck or
22:50whatever.
22:50And then you hear this pack of animals.
22:52It's like, uh-oh, get away from the edge.
22:55Well, the river was one of my creepiest scenes because I was nervous that every, so often
23:01something was going to jump out at her.
23:03Oh, let me say this.
23:04There's a genius beat in the movie that is not in the book.
23:08The one where, I mean, I think it's the peak of the movie where she intimates that one of
23:13the kids are going to have to open their eyes.
23:15Yes.
23:15That moment is like the peak of the movie.
23:17And that's not in the book.
23:18I wrote the screenwriter, Eric, after.
23:20I was like, can I retroactively add that?
23:23Is there any way to put that into the books that are already even out there?
23:26That is so good.
23:27Yeah.
23:28And whereas in the book, the birth scene is like the peak for sure.
23:32It almost seems like what comes after that is like, it had to, like the story still has
23:35to end, but the birth scene is definitely the peak in the book.
23:38The movie is for sure that moment.
23:40Because I was like, oh my God, she's going to make that little girl look.
23:42And I didn't, I'd never seen that scene.
23:44It's not in the book.
23:45So I didn't know either.
23:46And I was completely thrilled by that moment.
23:48So that's not in the book.
23:49Did she have something against the little girl because she wasn't biologically hers?
23:52So that's in the book too.
23:54That like, there's a sense that she's like, you know, closer to a boy.
23:59You're not mine.
24:00If you fall out, I'm like.
24:01I'll be okay.
24:02I'll be okay.
24:03There's so many dark points in this movie.
24:05Oh, let me, oh, sorry.
24:06Well, let me ask you, like, didn't you kind of want to see the girl look?
24:10Is that just the distant horror author?
24:12I did.
24:13But, but it's because I'm a father and I have two kids, my daughter and my son.
24:18And if I had like my nephew with me or something like that, I'd be like, hey kid, you're going
24:23to have to look.
24:24So obviously if I was with you, you would also make me look.
24:26Yeah, I'm sorry.
24:27Like I got to protect their best interest.
24:30And I love my nephew to death.
24:31But if somebody's got to go, it's got to be, it can't be me.
24:35I have, I got to roll the boat.
24:36Well, I thought she was going to have, if she did look, I thought she was going to have
24:39some special power.
24:39It wasn't going to affect her.
24:40But that's me with my positive thinking.
24:42No, but that's cool.
24:43That's cool.
24:43Yeah.
24:44Because how would that little girl, she'd be like, look out for that rock.
24:46There's another rock.
24:47Look out for another rock.
24:49She's got like Tai Chi powers.
24:51You never know.
24:52By the way, make sure you write that down because if that comes out in another one of his books.
24:55It's me.
24:56I like that.
24:57Yeah.
24:57Listen, Josh, man, we are grateful and thankful for you to come in studio, have a sit down
25:03and talk with us.
25:05I know it's, it's all weird to you right now, but this may be the last radio interview that
25:09you probably do because you're about to be with Steven Spielberg and all these other different
25:14guys.
25:14But I thank you.
25:16The movie was fantastic.
25:17I'm going to read the book.
25:18I'm looking forward to that.
25:19But thank you, man.
25:20Yes.
25:20Thank you guys.
25:21This is amazing.
25:22And thank you, Tracy.
25:23Thank you guys for having me.
25:24This is freaking awesome.
25:25Tracy, you got it.
25:26Now he said, thank you.
25:27You got to get on camera so they see you.
25:28It's going to be weird if he's thanking people.
25:30I'm just thanking one of the entities.
25:33That's producer Tracy for setting it up.
25:35Hi.
25:35And I would like to end this interview by saying, Joanna, you chose the wrong guy.
25:40So, instead of Jeff, when I met Josh, when I was hammered, I should have chose Josh.
25:45The author of the Bird Box book, Josh Mallardy!