“Bird Box,” Netflix’s word-of-mouth streaming hit directed by Susanne Bier and starring Sandra Bullock, has nothing to with MTV’s long-running series “Catfish,” and yet there exists a strange link between the two properties. For some reason, “Catfish” host Nev Schulman is depicted in the painting viewers see Sandra Bullock’s character working on at the beginning of the movie.
Based on the novel of the same name by author Josh Malerman, “Bird Box” centers around a group of characters trying to evade unseen monsters who force those who look at them to commit suicide. Prior to the monsters first showing up, Bier and screenwriter Eric Heisserer introduce Bullock’s character, Malorie, as a painter whose apartment is full of works of art.
Malorie’s latest painting is a riff on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, depicting pregnant Malorie at the center of a table surrounded by other people. Malorie’s take on The Last Supper is the work of art the viewer sees her working on when her sister, played by Sarah Paulson, shows up at her apartment in the film’s opening moments. Two of the people surrounding Malorie in the painting happen to be Nev Schulman and his wife, Laura Perlongo.
Schulman revealed on Instagram that he is friends with the actual artist behind the “Bird Box” Last Supper artwork, and he posed with his wife to be included in the painting. The artist behind Malorie’s paintings is Lily Morris. According to a July 2018 profile of Morris in Playboy, she’s a bicoastal artist whose work “draws on the challenging yet beautiful stories of intimacy, either between couples or with oneself.”
“Bird Box” is now streaming on Netflix.
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