Cole Hauser's Scary Behind-The-Scenes Fact About The Dangers Of Filming Dutton Ranch

Given the major role potentially-dangerous animals like bulls and wolves often played in the show, it's hardly a secret that filming the hit Paramount drama "Yellowstone" was occasionally a scary experience for its cast, even if the beasts featured onscreen were trained. And that's not even taking into account the untrained animals that occasionally wandered onto the show's Montana set. While hit spin-off "Dutton Ranch" ditched Montana for the plains of Texas, that problem didn't exactly go away. 

While "Dutton Ranch" has tons of behind-the-scenes drama (much like its mothership show), if you ask star Cole Hauser, nothing will strike unease into your heart quite like Mother Nature. During an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," in May 2026, Hauser, who reprises his role as Rip Wheeler from "Yellowstone," revealed that no fewer than 3,400 rattlesnakes were captured by on-set animal wranglers during the eight-month production of "Dutton Ranch" Season 1. The actor recalled that one shoot, in particular, had to be canceled outright due to an abundance of snakes at the planned filming location. 

"I don't want to give it away, but their might be a train station this year," Hauser disclosed. "That particular location we were at, we actually were going to go film there at night and got turned away. [...] Christina found, like, I don't know, 40 or 50 rattlesnakes," he noted, seemingly referring to "Dutton Ranch" lead director Christina Alexandra Voros. Notably, while rattlesnake bites are rarely fatal if properly treated, the Texas-dwelling reptiles are still nothing to play around with. So it was probably a good call on her part to call it a day.

During the duo's aforementioned appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" in May 2026, Cole Hauser's "Dutton Ranch" co-star Kelly Reilly, who reprises her role as fashion icon Beth Dutton, from "Yellowstone," on the spinoff show, offered her own perspective on the abundance of snakes on the Texas set. "We have snake wranglers — like, literally, like, six of them — on set at any point. And I'm in these stiletto heels running through fields. And I'm just praying, like, 'Please let them have got all the snakes in this vicinity.' [...] They just pick them up and put them somewhere far away from us," she shared. Of course Clarkson, a Texas native herself, certainly knows a thing or two about rattlesnakes. "I don't think people really think about it, but they are everywhere," the host pointed out. 

That being said, the abundance of rattlesnakes on set wasn't the only thing that made filming the show a challenge for the cast of "Dutton Ranch." They also had the scorching Texan heat to contend with. Working in those conditions can be difficult as it is, but Cole Hauser also faced an unexpected challenge with his weight on "Dutton Ranch" because of this one thing. The lead actor, who typically gains around 20 to 25 pounds to portray Rip Wheeler, to better embody the rugged, fan-favorite character, found the Texas sun working against him in that respect. "It was hard to keep [the weight] on," Hauser admitted during a June 2026 interview with People, elaborating, "I was sweating it out." On the bright side, we hear Texas has some seriously life-changing barbecue (including rattlesnake!).