Indie Veteran to Young Directors: 'Netflix Made My Career'

Mark Duplass may not be a household name, but in indie film circles he’s practically a legend.

The prolific actor/director/screenwriter is connected to some of the buzzier films in independent cinema, including The Puffy Chair, Humpday and Baghead, and he points to an unlikely source for his success.

Netflix.

Duplass opened up about his affection for the streaming outlet to Variety, saying the New Media outlet had a major impact on his career.

I’m gonna say something controversial here,” he said with a relaxed but serious gaze. “And this is no slight to all my friends who distribute movies, (but) the most important part of making a movie is making sure that film streams on Netflix.”

The star of 2011’s Your Sister’s Sister and FX’s The League told the industry publication that his life changed after his first film somehow made it into Netflix’s repertoire a few years back.

Getting yourself into theaters is great,” he added, “getting a big VOD pop is great, but my first movie made a grand total of $220,000 in theaters but about 5 million people have seen it on Netflix because they can click on it and they can try it out. And so I really recommend to get your get goddamn movie on Netflix, it made my career.