{"id":7099,"date":"2025-10-14T09:12:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=7099"},"modified":"2025-10-14T09:12:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:12:02","slug":"emmy-winner-paul-walter-hauser-looks-back-on-his-time-at-cuc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=7099","title":{"rendered":"Emmy-Winner Paul Walter Hauser Looks Back on His Time at CUC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/3eZaJNiZ1DeCTqDYj431Iy?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameBorder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before he was an Emmy Award-winning actor, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paul Walter Hauser was a student at Concordia University Chicago. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hauser, who appeared this summer in the films <i>Fantastic Four: First Steps <\/i>and <i>The Naked Gun, <\/i> attended CUC from January of 2008 to May of 2009. <\/span>Though he was on campus for all three of those semesters, by the 2009 Spring semester, Hauser wasn\u2019t devoting much time to his studies.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI dropped out in my third semester,\u201d Hauser said over e-mail. \u201cI just stayed on campus, eating off my meal card, partying, doing comedy in the city, and attending church on Sundays.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hauser said there wasn\u2019t a specific moment when he decided to stop being a full-time student.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI left because I was immature and was never going to finish my degree,\u201d said Hauser. \u201cBy the time I was leaving, I had been writing screenplays and making contacts in Los Angeles to try and move there. I was never cut out for a school setting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hauser got his start making guest appearances on the comedy shows <em>It&#8217;s Always Sunny in Philadelphia <\/em>and\u00a0<em>Community.\u00a0<\/em>He appeared in several other shows and had his first recurring role on the show <em>Kingdom.\u00a0<\/em>He appeared in films such\u00a0<em>I, Tonya <\/em>and\u00a0<em>BlacKkKlansman,\u00a0<\/em>before his breakout performance as the title character in 2019&#8217;s\u00a0<em>Richard Jewell,<\/em> about the security guard who was falsely accused for being responsible for the 1996 bombing of the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>Hauser won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as Larry Hall in the 2022 limited series\u00a0<em>Black Bird. <\/em>Since then, he has had roles in films such as\u00a0<em>Inside Out 2\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>The Luckiest Man in America.\u00a0<\/em>His next role will as guitar tech Mike Batlan in the upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic <em>Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7141\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7141\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7141\" src=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pwh_cuc_improv-600x343.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"343\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7141\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actor Paul Walter Hauser (top, fourth from left) with the CUC Improv Comedy Club in the 2008-2009 CUC Yearbook.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While college might not have been for him, Hauser did say he felt he contributed to the social scene while he was at CUC. He attended the tailgating meals at football games, and was a vocal member of the student body when it came to school spirit at basketball games. He also participated in more than just sporting events.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI did standup comedy for the Relay 4 Life Walkathon,\u201d said Hauser. \u201cI hosted movie nights for students, and I definitely sang a rendition of a Tenacious D song for a talent show in the actual church sanctuary.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One thing that Hauser liked doing for fun almost certainly wasn\u2019t approved of by school administrators.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI liked streaking naked through campus during a thunderstorm, asking other students for soap and shampoo,\u201d said Hauser.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hauser lived on the third floor of David-Jonathan Hall during his time at CUC, and said that it was rowdy, and that he was loud and oftentimes inconsiderate of others\u2019 personal space.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of Hauser\u2019s favorite memories involves traveling with the basketball team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe traveled with the basketball team when they played a tournament in Nebraska, and we threw the greatest party,\u201d said Hauser. \u201cWe somehow hosted like 25 people in one motel room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hauser has fond memories of some of his professors at Concordia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI loved Andrew Pollom,\u201d said Hauser. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t just a stiff, socially-awkward staff member. He felt like a real person and you could have a real conversation with him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pollom, who at the time taught a Freedom and Responsibility course and now serves as the vice president of student affairs at the University of Southern Maine, shares a similar sentiment towards Hauser.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u201cHe was not the most focused student, but he was such a positive guy and surprisingly thoughtful and introspective,\u201d said Pollom. \u201cI think what I\u2019ve most been impressed by following his journey is not his acting \u2014 though that is award worthy and fun to watch \u2014 but the way he has stumbled and rebuilt his life. He stands for something and works hard at trying to remain committed and authentic as a man, a husband, and a father.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7142\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7142\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-7142\" src=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pwh_cuc_david-559x600.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"494\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7142\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Walter Hauser (second from left) with his floormates in David-Jonathan Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hauser\u2019s favorite class was one that you would expect an actor to enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSusan Ericsson was my favorite professor,\u201d said Hauser. \u201cShe taught my favorite class, which was a film theory class where we would watch and dissect classic movies, as well as modern classics. It made me want to watch the older films I had previously ignored.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It wasn\u2019t all positive memories, however.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy least favorite memory is finding out the girl I had a crush on had been seeing this jock guy I didn\u2019t much care for,\u201d said Hauser. \u201cWhen I found out, I drunkenly walked from Doc Ryan\u2019s all the way back to campus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doc Ryan\u2019s was a bar located in Forest Park that closed in March 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it was relatively brief, Hauser thinks his time at CUC did pay some dividends. He learned a lot about himself and made lifelong friends such as Stephanie Ghem (n\u00e9e Zimmer) and James Morgan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOf all the Concordias I had visited, it was far and away the best one,\u201d said Hauser.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before he was an Emmy Award-winning actor, Paul Walter Hauser was a student at Concordia University Chicago. Hauser, who appeared this summer in the films Fantastic Four: First Steps and The Naked Gun, attended CUC from January of 2008 to May of 2009. Though he was on campus for all three of those semesters, by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":7130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-life-culture","category-showcase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}