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Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Entertainment
Heidi Venable

Forget The Snakes, There's Another Reason Cole Hauser Says Filming Dutton Ranch Was Impossibly Hard

Cole Hauser as Rip Wheeler on Dutton Ranch.

Dutton Ranch — the newest entry into the Yellowstone universe to hit the 2026 TV schedule — sees Rip and Beth finding their place in unfamiliar territory after moving from Montana down to Texas. It turns out it’s not just the characters who are going through those growing pains. Cole Hauser opened up about another aspect that’s been difficult since their on-location shoots went South, and it’s got nothing to do with the literal thousands of snakes that had to be wrangled.

“Non-growing pains” would have been a more appropriate term to use there. Cole Hauser revealed to People that he usually packs on a few pounds for the role of Rip Wheeler, but Texas' triple-digit temperatures made that nearly impossible. He said:

I was trying to keep weight on. I mean, I usually put on about 25 pounds, but it was hard to keep it on. I was sweating it out.

If Cole Hauser needs recommendations for a good barbecue joint or some Tex-Mex, he can give me a call, because I’ve never had a problem keeping on my work-mandated extra 25 pounds. (I’m now being informed that this job does not actually require me to carry extra weight.)

In all seriousness, though, I’m sure Cole Hauser was eating just fine during his time in Texas, but the truth of the matter is, cowboying is hard in this heat. Heck, doing anything is hard in this heat, and I don’t even have to pretend to be chasing down cattle, tending to horses or running through fields in stilettos (that last one was what Kelly Reilly did as Beth Dutton, not Hauser).

Series director Christina Alexandra Voros addressed the weather woes that the crew faced, telling People:

[It was] around 106 degrees for the first week that we were shooting. … We finished the show in March and we got shut down for four days because of an ice storm. So we had every weather emoji over the course of shooting this.

Welcome to Texas.

Yellowstone’s Beth and Rip spinoff has been doing just fine without the other Dutton family members — many of whom didn't make it out of Season 5 alive — as Dutton Ranch reportedly premiered to 12.9 million Paramount Network viewers and Paramount+ subscription holders over its first seven days in release. I mean, there was never any doubt how much fans loved Beth and Rip’s relationship.

Now the biggest question surrounding John Dutton’s surviving offspring is whether Kayce (Luke Grimes) will cameo on Dutton Ranch or Beth and Rip will make the trip over to Marshals first for a crossover episode. Storywise, it probably makes more sense for Kayce to visit Beth in Texas, but Cole Hauser sounds ready to get out of the Texas heat and “kick back in the mountains of Montana.”

I can’t say I blame him. Catch new episodes of Dutton Ranch at 8 p.m. ET Fridays on Paramount Network and Paramount+.

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