Before he ever stepped into Rip Wheeler’s worn boots, Yellowstone star Cole Hauser was almost someone else entirely in Taylor Sheridan’s hit Western series. As it turns out, fans nearly saw the fan-favorite cowboy played by someone else — or not at all — if Hauser had taken one of the other roles he was originally approached for. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hauser looked back at his journey with Yellowstone, reflecting on how the role that would ultimately define his career came about. Initially, co-creator John Linson — who had known Hauser for years — pitched the actor several different roles, including one of John Dutton’s sons.

“John Linson was a friend of mine way before I met Taylor Sheridan. I’ve known him since I was 17 years old. I met him through a buddy of mine. He came to me initially [with Yellowstone] and said, ‘Take a look at these different roles and tell me what you think.’ In the beginning it was to play one of the children of John Dutton. I read the pilot and I thought, well this guy [Rip] only has a couple of scenes, but I love the character. I got on the phone with Taylor. We spoke for two hours, and that was kind of it. Then I started to work with and be around Taylor while he was writing and he started building the character along with some of the ideas that I had. But he’s a tremendous American writer. It was a great collaboration.”

Source: THR