Career-Threatening Injury Almost Cost Cole Hauser the Yellowstone Role
For 5 consecutive seasons, Yellowstone, a neo-western drama created by famed Taylor Sheridan, remains one of the most popular and controversial shows on television, thanks in part to Cole Hauser.
In Yellowstone Hauser plays Rip Wheeler, the Dutton Ranch ranch foreman and John Dutton's main enforcer.
Not surprisingly for the person in charge of all the cowboys and ranch hands, Rip spends a lot of time in the saddle. Therefore, being at least a decent rider was one of the key requirements for his role - as well as many other roles on the show. In fact, Yellowstone's showrunners even set up a "cowboy boot camp" to train the cast in horseback riding.
But Cole Hauser did not need the training, or at least he didn't need it as much as some of his co-stars. He learned to ride from an early age, and though, unlike his character, he did not spend his entire life on a horse, he was better prepared for his role than most. At least until the accident that nearly cost him the role.
In fact, that accident threatened to end his acting career and possibly his active life altogether.
Despite all his experience with horseback riding and his love of sports in general, Cole badly injured his back when he fell off a horse during the filming of the sports drama The Last Champion.
This happened after he had already joined the cast of Yellowstone, but before filming actually began. And the injury was pretty bad, as he revealed in an interview with Men's Journal:
'My back was so bad I couldn’t move around very well, and so I lost strength in my stomach.'
And what did Hauser do to overcome this problem? As it happens, he faced it in a manner worthy of Rip Wheeler and numerous other tough characters he has played over the years. He decided to recover from a riding injury by getting back on the horse and doing more riding:
‘What riding ended up doing was strengthening my back and my core,’ he says.
As a result, Hauser made a full recovery! And all that riding also helps him maintain his physical condition for playing the man who's supposed to be in excellent shape - he doesn't need any other physical activities to stay fit.
The only drawback, Hauser says, is that no matter how much experience he has, whenever he goes for a long ride for the first time before filming a new season, it leaves him quite sore in the morning.