Many actors have become nothing short of household names since they landed their roles on “Yellowstone.” Of course, one of the biggest breakouts of Taylor Sheridan’s neo-western has been Cole Hauser, who plays John Dutton’s (Kevin Costner) son-in-law-slash-enforcer, Rip Wheeler. All the same, to hear it from the man himself, he could have ended up playing another character altogether on the hit series.
The actor spoke about how he was almost an official Dutton rather than an honorary one when he was a guest on “The Ryen Rusillo Podcast.” “I just didn’t see it,” he said of the Dutton role, which could have been for any of John’s three sons. “The one [character] that jumped off the page was Rip, and [Hauser’s management team] were like, ‘What are you doing? It’s two scenes in a pilot,'” Hauser recalled.
“I said, ‘No, this character’s gonna have something really good. I can just feel it,” he went on. While the series would undoubtedly look different with Hauser in another role, fans will likely be happy that we live in the timeline where the “Dazed and Confused” and “Pitch Black” alum has instead taken on the role of the one “Yellowstone” cowboy who you never want to cross paths with.
Cole Hauser has spoken previously about nearly playing a Dutton
The newer story is echoed by an Express interview in which Cole Hauser told the story previously. “[Yellowstone co-creator John Linson] came to me and said, ‘There’s this show; we’ve just got Kevin Costner,” the actor recalled. “‘Take a look at it and see what you think. I think you’d be great in this.'”
Naturally, after five seasons as the gruff muscle behind John Dutton, it’s a bit tough to imagine Hauser in a different role. Still, it is possible to see him as either Kayce (Luke Grimes) or Lee (Dave Annable). What’s a lot more of a reach, though, is to picture the actor as the more prim and proper Jamie (Wes Bentley).
Of the three, Hauser is likely happiest that he didn’t land on Lee Dutton, as the character dies in the first episode of “Yellowstone” and only appears in a few flashbacks after that. “He didn’t say any role or anything. I looked at the script, and initially, my team wanted me to position myself to play one of his sons,” Hauser went on.
“And I just didn’t see it. I didn’t think that there was a role that was right for me when it came to Jamie, or Lee, or Kayce,” the actor concluded. Considering how popular Rip Wheeler has become over the years, surely “Yellowstone” fans wouldn’t have it any other way.