Before Beth & Rip: Looking Back at Kelly Reilly & Cole Hauser’s Roles Pre-‘Yellowstone’
These days, they’re most recognizable as rich cattle rancher’s daughter Beth Dutton and loyal, rugged ranch hand Rip Wheeler but before Yellowstone, Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser had long careers on television and in film.
For Reilly, that included plays and films such as Pride & Prejudice and Sherlock Holmes as well as another popular TV show, True Detective. Meanwhile, Hauser’s films spanned from dramas (Good Will Hunting) to comedies (The Break-Up) to action (A Good Day to Hide Hard).
Scroll down to take a look at those and more of their earlier roles as well as to see what Reilly and Hauser had to say about playing their Yellowstone characters.
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s Beth & Rip: Yellowstone Collector’s Edition issue, available online and on newsstands now.
Cole Hauser before Rip Wheeler
On Yellowstone, Cole Hauser plays a rugged, stoic cowboy. But take away Rip Wheeler’s beard and ten-gallon hat, and you might be surprised to find the face of a 1990s teen heartthrob. Hauser’s career got off the ground with supporting roles in iconic ’90s classics like School Ties, Dazed and Confused and Good Will Hunting, alongside future stars Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. “We spent about a solid seven years basically insulting each other,” he recalled. “It was great.” He was even roommates with Affleck and Damon when they were young actors in L.A.
In the 2000s, he showed his comedic chops as Vince Vaughn’s womanizing brother in the romantic comedy The Break-Up. He also featured in a number of action movies, such as 2 Fast 2 Furious and A Good Day to Die Hard, where he perfected the tough demeanor and intimidating physicality that would come to define Rip.
But it wasn’t until 2018 that Hauser landed that perfect role — one that combined the heart, humor and action he’d spent a lifetime bringing to the screen. Rip is “one of those dream roles that you wait a career for, and I’ve been waiting for something this special,” Hauser said.
Kelly Reilly before Beth Dutton
Yellowstone fans know Kelly Reilly as a foul-mouthed Montana firebrand — perhaps the polar opposite of a British theater actress! London-born Reilly launched her career in the late ’90s with parts in a number of English plays, as well as smaller roles onscreen. In 2005, she appeared in the film Pride & Prejudice as the snobbish Caroline Bingley, where her insults were more subtle than they are today. What would Jane Austen have to say about Beth Dutton?
Reilly landed her first lead role in the 2008 horror film Eden Lake. She and Michael Fassbender played a young couple whose romantic weekend takes a terrifying turn when they’re tormented by a gang of youths. She starred next in the 2009 blockbuster Sherlock Holmes as Mary Morstan, fiancée to Jude Law’s Watson — a role she would reprise in the 2011 sequel. The following years would see Reilly in a series of high-profile roles: a recovering heroin addict in Flight with Denzel Washington, the wife of a career criminal in HBO’s True Detective and even a Celtic warrior queen in the Prime Video/Epix series Britannia.
It’s hard not to see these performances as preparation for Reilly’s greatest and most complex role to date. Beth “is pretty thrilling, and there’s just so many different aspects of her,” Reilly said. “I don’t get to rest on my laurels and just roll into work…. I love the challenge of it.”
Yellowstone, Sundays, 8/7c, Paramount Network
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