In the film The Last Champion, John Wright was a hometown hero – the powerful star of his high school wrestling team and a promising Olympian. He could have had it all… but one bad decision destroyed his dreams and forced him to leave under a cloud of scandal that has haunted him ever since. But 20 years later, John returns to his small town after his mother's death. His icy reception proves his former friends and neighbors still haven’t forgiven him for letting them down. Unexpectedly, John gets the opportunity to turn everything around by coaching his high school’s wrestling team.
Cole Hauser plays the role of John Wright, and Screen Rant had the opportunity to interview him. We go over his passion for the script, his experience learning wrestling for the role, and the process for prepping for one of the film's most intense scenes.
Here’s how I will start off. I love the film dude. I thought you were wonderful in it. So I wanted to ask first off, how did you get involved?
Cole Hauser: I was coming back from Vancouver. I did a TV show for four years called Rouge. I read the script on the way to Los Angeles. Landed in LA, called my agent, and said “I have to meet them, you know...today. I wanna make sure that I get there before anyone else. You know what I mean. I drove directly from the airport to Glen and Hallie, who’s the writer as well. Talked with them for about an hour and a half and just told them look, this is someone I know. This is someone I need to portray. I feel like I can do it to the best of my abilities. And he just gave me the role right there in the meeting. He said, “You know Cole I think you’re right. I’ve seen your work. I know how dedicated you are. I know what you will bring to this. And I believe you as John Wright.” And that was it. Three weeks later I was up in Washington filming the movie.
Oh that’s amazing. Without spoiling anything was there a specific scene or a moment in the script that you felt that connection right away?
Cole Hauser: I think all of it man. I gotta be honest…
The whole thing? Wow.
Cole Hauser: Yeah. It was like...him coming into town and being disgraced. You know, having to deal with his demons. You know his past. Having to look at himself in the mirror. Being a mentor. The faith aspect of it. The redemption, the athletic stuff I had with Sean. The coaching. The teacher. The guy who gets to be able to...there’s so many colors, Justin, throughout the picture that I hope that we...I’ve seen it...I think we did touch a lot of...it’s very rare you have an opportunity as an actor to be able to play in all those different arenas.
And that is something I do appreciate about the film. It does a family drama. It’s a sports film. I might even argue even a little bit of a Christmas film to a certain degree. So one of the things I do wanna talk about of course is the wrestling aspect. How familiar were you at all with professional wrestling?
Cole Hauser: I mean, I have buddies in high school who wrestled. I was a football player. So I never wrestled in high school. You know, I have a whole new respect. I mean...I rolled around with this guy who...a good wrestler, he’s not the greatest in the country. I rolled around with him for about 5 minutes and it’s exhausting. You know what I mean! You need to be in shape. And Sean Scully who plays Michael and Casey Moss, the two actors...they wrestled in high school I believe but they were in insane shape. They had to do that scene at the end of the movie, probably ten times. So imagine having to do that. It was extraordinary. They deserve all the credit in the world.
John Wright was a hometown hero – the powerful star of his high school wrestling team and a promising Olympian. He could have had it all… but one bad decision destroyed his dreams and forced him to leave under a cloud of scandal that has haunted him ever since.
There's a special thing about sports films, I feel ..even if you’re not into the specific sport anyone can understand it. What sports films did you personally enjoy growing up that maybe have some similarities with The Last Champion?
Cole Hauser: One of my favorite sports films...and I have a few...one of my mine is...it’s an old film...it’s directed by Taylor Hackford and it’s called Everybody’s All-American. It’s with Dennis Quaid, Jessica Lange, Timothy Hutton. It’s about the Grey Ghost. This running back who, in the ‘50’s, this like really celebrated guy coming out of LSU. He was on top of the world and then went into the NFL and got his butt kicked, and realized he’s not good enough to play at that level. And then it was really about kind of the downturn of his career. So it’s a great film and I feel like there are similarities to John Wright, you know because he was so prominent in the wrestling community, whether it was state, college or national champion then on to the Olympics. I don’t know... I have my own personal thoughts...I told this to Glen...on why he did steroids, but obviously, it’s one of those things you see athletes doing more and more just trying to get an advantage. It obviously backfired on him.
Now I did mention earlier, I kinda can see this film as a bit of a Christmas film. What do you think about possibly families watching this during Christmas?
Cole Hauser: I love it. I mean. I think you know...Justin...between you and I...the country needs movies like this right now. Kids need to see movies like this. There’s bullying in it, which is something that needs to be talked about and tackled. There’s friendship, there’s love. There’s redemption. It’s got all these great qualities. I feel like there’s the addiction part too. I mean, you see him at the very darkest of dark, when it comes to alcoholism. There’s a lot of teaching...I think when it comes to families and young kids. My kids have seen it, and they loved it. They loved seeing me go through that journey. I hope that it becomes...I mean...look. It’s coming out in December. You got Thanksgiving and Christmas right here, and I’m hoping everybody goes out and watches it.
And I kinda wanna hinge a little bit on the redemption part. I feel like something you just said just a minute ago. I feel something like this is very important. How do you feel about how your film explores redemption and second chances?
Cole Hauser: I think Glen and Hallie did a great job of taking a character and having him start at the very lowest in life. He’s starting in the ashes. He’s slowly able to speak again. Look them in the eye. He’s been off the grid for so long that he probably has a better relationship with a horse than with people. It’s one of those things where you get to see the steps of him...and in the end, it’s really not about him. Which I love, and we worked really hard on the ending because I didn’t want it to be like John Wright won. No, it’s Michael. Michael wins. He has the dreams now to go on to college and do what John Wright didn’t have the opportunity to do. Which is to be clean, work your ass off, and go and be the best athlete you can be. I felt like it landed in the right way in the end, for me.
Awesome. There’s one bit of your performances that I do wanna focus on, without spoiling the film. It’s after John witnesses something very terrible the night before, and he basically has to go back to training the next day and he’s keeping these emotions in. Just to get everyone the idea, how do you prepare for something like that. What’s your thought process into getting into a very complicated and emotional scene?
Cole Hauser: I think I filmed...it was 22 degrees that night that I think you’re talking about. I think the very next day was the scene with Scott and I when he is basically bullying Sean and the team. And then I snapped at him. You know...it felt good! (Laughs) I don’t like bullies. I always had problems with bullies. I was a kid that went to a lot of different schools. I was a red-headed kid. I was a little overweight when I was young, and they would bully me and I would end up getting into fights with them. I can’t stand bullies, and that makes me feel good to be able to just take his head off with words, you know.
It was very satisfying, I’ll admit to that. Cole, thank you so much it was a real pleasure talking to you.
The Last Champion will be available on Digital December 8, 2020.