Taylor Swift is a clever person. She knows where the Easter eggs are hidden and creates some of her own. In her latest music video, which is for her song "Fortnight" from her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, she thought she might borrow from another "poet" and bring actor/director Ethan Hawke along for the ride.
Hawke and his fellow Dead Poets Society actor, Josh Charles, are not the stars of the new video. That would be Swift, of course, along with rapper-turned-pop/country singer Post Malone. Swift and Malone play fictional characters who are ex-lovers and find themselves still drawn to each other. There seems to be some kind of medical or psychological issue with Swift causing this.
Hawke and Charles play scientists attempting to do tests on Swift. Malone finally lets Swift go, however, and there is clearly no need for the scientists anymore.
Ethan Hawke had to keep secret from his daughters that he was meeting Taylor Swift
Hawke spoke about his experience of being contacted about making the video, the secrecy involved, and how he specifically could not discuss his new connection with Swift with his teenage daughters on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. He joked about walking through an airport with Charles where so many people were wearing Taylor Swift shirts and he and Charles laughed to themselves knowing they had a secret that Swifties would have been envious of.
Hawke said, "We’re going to meet the Queen ourselves. For Josh and I, we laughed ourselves silly the whole day. We felt like the biggest rock stars in the world...The truth is when (his daughters) did find out (about Hawke making the video with Swift), the look on their face 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. I can’t have that on them. So I had to low-key it."
As part of being in the video, Hawke and Charles had to sign non-disclosure agreements. This is standard practice before making a video, however.
Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department has been breaking records since its April 19 release. This includes being the most-streamed album in a single week with 1 billion listens. "Fortnight" became the most-streamed song in a single day as well. Of course, her Era tour has broken numerous records, including the highest-grossing tour in history.