At 18, Cole Hauser played Benny in Richard Linklater's 1993 stoner movie, Dazed and Confused. Twenty-five years later, he's one of the stars of Paramount's hit Western series, Yellowstone.
In Dazed, Benny's a high school senior who loves to haze incoming freshmen with a paddle board. He's joined by other bullies Fred O'Bannion (Ben Affleck), Melvin Spivey (Jason O. Smith) and Don Dawson (Sasha Jenson). In one scene, Benny and the guys wait outside the school for the kids.
"If you meet us right here after school today, you all will only get one lick from each of us," the then redheaded Hauser says via a loudspeaker. "But if you run like cowards it's open season all summer long, boys."
Hauser was just 18 years old at the time. He'd met Affleck and Matt Damon on the set of School Ties a year earlier. Hauser and Affleck both auditioned for Dazed and got the parts. Dazed and Confused introduced a whole new generation of actors, including Affleck, Hauser, Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp and Jason London. It wasn't a big hit at the time but has grown to have cult status over the last 30 years.
"It was one of the coolest experiences for all of us actors," Hauser recalls. "We had one big awesome party and filmed it. Nobody would have thought it would be a cult classic."
Linklater told Hauser, “It's gonna be like summer camp in Austin." And it was.
Now, Hauser's best known for his cowboy character Rip Wheeler in Yellowstone; he's the ranch's foreman. Along the way Hauser had parts in Good Will Hunting (1997), 2 Fast 2 Furious (20023) and a bunch of lesser films. Yellowstone has put him back on the Hollywood map.
Asked by Esquire how Benny would do as a rancher, Hauser responded:
"I think he'd probably be an enforccer for a ranch. He's a pretty intense guy."
In the current fifth season, Rip has to deal with the mysterious death of his boss, John Dutton (Kevin Costner), who was also the governor of Montana. He's married to Dutton's daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) and runs the Yellowstone ranch.
Hauser says one of his next projects involves McConaughey, who probably was the biggest star to come out of Dazed. "We play two brothers," he says. The script is being written by David Pizzolatto.
Alright, alright, alright and yee-ha to Cole Hauser, who's come a long way since being Benny in 1993.
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