Like it or not, city-folk, “Yellowstone” has officially gone mainstream. That’s right, after years of being relegated to underground middle American word-of-mouth, Taylor Sheridan’s modern western Paramount series is finally getting its due. The coasts are beginning to clue in on the rich mix of family legacy, melodrama, crime, and corruption stories— we’ve described it as “The Godfather” in Montana and award shows are beginning to recognize the series too. Oh, and did we mention, that the show is shattering network TV records with each passing season and spin-off.
For the uninitiated, the highly popular series follows John Dutton (Kevin Costner), a powerful rancher in Montana as he struggles to keep his ranch and family together by any means necessary — all while being besieged by land developers, surrounding native tribes, and American’s first national park. On today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our podcast devoted to all things television and streaming, Cole Hauser, who plays Rip Wheeler on the show—the adopted prodigal son of the Dutton dynasty and heavy violent enforcer when he needs to be — stops by to discuss what drew him to the part of Rip, rather that one of Costner’s sons.
“I think, initially, the idea was to maybe play one of Kevin’s sons.” Hauser shared. “As I was reading the script, this character of Rip kept popping up. And I’m thinking, ‘No. This is the guy.’ There’s something really loyal and beautiful about him. He’s a throwback character, which I don’t think we’ve seen in a very long time. He’s got obviously a pretty insane intensity to him and, you know, the things he does.”
Now that the show has been on for four seasons and has massively increased in popularity, the cast has certainly taken notice of the attention; however, to Hauser, the show was always deserving of the fandom.
“Initially it was more of a grassroots kind of feel, you know. Which I kind of think that’s why the show has had the success it’s had is that it’s really built like a core family.” Hauser said of “Yellowstone” and its recent popularity. “It started in the middle of the country and built its way, finally, to the edges, in Los Angeles and New York. Like, those people are actually watching it. Well, for many years it wasn’t that way, but I think, you know, after year one. The premiere of the show — we were in Montana and Utah and Texas. I mean, these are places where people love this kind of stuff, so I always felt like it was doing really well. It’s getting more attention now, that’s all.”
“Yellowstone” isn’t the only wildly successful franchise that Hauser has been a part of. “Fast And Furious” fans may know him as Carter Verone from “2 Fast 2 Furious,” who has yet to resurface in the film storyline. Hauser himself was not sure that would ever be the case, but he’s always open for more.
“Listen, I love that role. It was a fun role and I would have thought, at some point that they would have said, ‘OK, well, he’s out of jail and he’s coming after Tyrese.” Hauser explained. “But, you know, it’s never happened for some reason. I don’t know why. But it’s too bad for, I think, a lot of reasons because I think the audience wanted to see him come back. I think they’re only doing one more…so, maybe? We’ll see. There’s always a chance.”
“Yellowstone” is currently streaming seasons one-four on Peacock and will premiere season five on Paramount Network on November 13. You can listen to the entire conversation below.
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