Ethan Hawke Speaks out on His Role in Taylor Swift's 'Fortnight' Music Video

The actor reunited with his 'Dead Poets Society' co-star Josh Charles for Swift and Post Malone's 'Fortnight,' the first single from her 'Tortured Poets Department' album.

By Allison Schonter

Ethan Hawke is opening up about his involvement in Taylor Swift's "Fortnight" music video. Released on April 19 alongside the debut of the pop star's 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, the "Fortnight" music video not only featured Swift's collaborator Post Malone but also reunited the actor with his Dead Poets Society co-star Josh Charles, Hawke telling Stephen Colbert that the pair felt "like the biggest rock stars in the world."

"We got this call [that] Taylor's releasing an album, The Tortured Poets Department, and I think she wanted to hide a little Easter egg about Dead Poets Society," Hawke said during a Monday, May 6 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. "You can't imagine what it's like to walk through an airport with a friend you've known for 35 years, that you grew up with, and watch all the young people in the airport with their Eras sweatshirts on and their Taylor Swift things, and we've got something on them. We're going to meet the queen ourselves!"

In the video, which is currently the only music video released connected to TTPD, Hawke and Charles playing scientists conducting experiments on Swift following a failed love affair. Hawke's involvement in the music video was kept tight-lipped, so much so that the actor "signed an NDA" that prevented him from spilling the news to his family, including daughters Clementine, 15, and Indiana, 12.

"I tell my teenage daughters that I'm going to meet Taylor, and everybody at school is going to know," Hawke joked, adding that when Clementina and Indiana found out about his cameo, "the look on their faces was one of profound disappointment. 'Don't pay attention to my dad, my dad's an idiot, you should be calling me.' Taylor belongs to them, you know? I can't have that on them. I had to low-key it."

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Following the music video's premiere, Hawke took to social media to share a few behind-the-scenes photos, writing, "'Todd' [and] 'Knox' from DEAD POETS SOCIETY are now PhDs in THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT." He added that "it's quite an honor," and thanked Swift "or the opportunity to be in the music video for your song FORTNIGHT feat. [Post Malone]."

In her own post about the video, Swift said she was "still laughing from getting to work with the coolest guys on earth, [Hawke and Charles] (tortured poets, meet your colleagues from down the hall, the dead poets)." She explained that when she began writing the "Fortnight" music video, she "wanted to show you the worlds I saw in my head that served as the backdrop for making this music. Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another. For me, this video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the stories I tell in it."

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