You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Netflix Is Done Coddling HollywoodDan Lin doesn’t fawn over stars or write blank checks. And he still greenlights more movies than anyone.Dan Lin, the chairman of Netflix’s film division.Credit...Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesNetflix Is Done Coddling HollywoodDan Lin doesn’t fawn over stars or write blank checks. And he still greenlights more movies than anyone.Dan Lin, the chairman of Netflix’s film division.Credit...Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesListen · 15:15 min June 4, 2026When Dan Lin, the chairman of Netflix’s film division, read the script for a survival thriller set in the remote wilderness of Australia, he thought it was obvious who should play the lead role: Charlize Theron. “Charlize is one of one,” Mr. Lin said. The movie, “Apex,” would feature white-water rafting, venomous snakes, characters plummeting to their deaths from cliffs. “We wanted to make it in a way that the action actually felt real — that you actually felt like you were in the Australian outback,” Mr. Lin said. “She was the only one that could do it.”Mr. Lin and I were sitting in a sleek conference room at Netflix’s Sunset Boulevard headquarters, where he oversees the industry’s most prolific film studio. We were talking about his approach to making movies, and he had volunteered this story.For “Apex,” Mr. Lin consulted with Kira Goldberg, one of his deputies. “Kira and I strategized about how do we get Charlize to do it,” he said. “How do we know that the actor that we have is game to make that kind of movie? And so, unlike a traditional Hollywood process where you take someone to The Grill, some fancy restaurant, we took Charlize to the cafeteria here at Netflix.”“That was the strategy,” I said, a little confused. “Why?”“The strategy is: Is she game?” Mr. Lin said. “Is she willing to roll up her sleeves and get into it with us?”I thought it unlikely that Ms. Theron, who spent months in the Namib Desert shooting “Mad Max: Fury Road,” would consider the Netflix salad bar a hardship. Mr. Lin continued, as if he had not said anything strange: “Netflix is such a big company. My goal is to make a big company feel small.”On that score, he’s succeeded. Not long ago, the film group was run by Scott Stuber, a former vice chairman at Universal, whose charge was to convince Hollywood that Netflix was committed to making every kind of movie imaginable, from extravagant action titles to prestige Oscarbait. Charming and affable in the traditional studio chief way, Mr. Stuber lured Martin Scorsese, Guillermo del Toro and other elite directors with expansive budgets and creative freedom. Talent saw Mr. Stuber as one of the good guys: He fought with his boss, the co-chief executive Ted Sarandos, to give movies theatrical runs and keep a piece of their fading glamour.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT