"Taylor belongs to them" — Ethan Hawke claims his daughters were not happy with his collaboration with Taylor Swift on TTPD

Ethan Hawke, the American actor and film director, recently opened up about his daughters' reaction to the news of him working with Taylor Swift in her music video for Fortnight.

The track is a collaboration with American rapper Post Malone and is one of the 16 songs in her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. On Monday, May 6, 2024, the actor appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and spoke about his daughters:

"The truth is when they did find out, 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."

Hawke was referring to his two teenage daughters, Clementine Jean Hawke, 15, and Indiana Hawke, 12, whom he welcomed with his wife, Ryan Shawhughes Hawke. The 53-year-old also shares two children, daughter Maya Hawke and son Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke, with his ex-wife, Uma Thurman.

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Taylor Swift featuring Ethan Hawke in the Fortnight music video was a ‘profound disappointment’ for his Swiftie kids

Ethan Hawke and his Dead Poets Society co-star and lifelong friend Josh Charles reunited to appear in Taylor Swift's first music video of Fortnight from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department.

The song was released on April 19, 2024, when Post Malone played the pop star's love interest. On Monday’s episode of The Late Show, Ethan Hawke spoke about his experience working with the billionaire singer. When the host, Stephen Colbert, asked him how the collaboration came about, the actor quipped:

"Well, Stephen, I’m very popular. People seek me out. It just happens. We got this call: ‘Taylor’s releasing an album, The Tortured Poets Department. And I think she wanted to hide a little easter egg about Dead Poets Society in it."

Ethan Hawke also shared that the pair signed a non-disclosure agreement, and he even had to refrain from telling his teenage daughters that he made an appearance in Taylor's music video. However, when the children found out, they were disappointed that Hawke got to meet the star and not them.

The Leave the World Behind actor then recalled walking through the airport with Josh and seeing all the young people wearing the singer's "Eras Tour" merchandise and joked:

"We got something on them. We’re going to meet the queen ourselves right now."

The 14-time Grammy winner's Fortnight video came out the same day as her The Tortured Poets Department album. It contained several Easter eggs (a common trait in Swift's projects).

Fans soon started to dissect and come up with theories, including that the reference to her Poor Things wardrobe parallels the typewriter motif that has defined the Tortured Poets Department era. Ethan Hawke also talked about the atmosphere while filming the music video. He said:

"For Josh and I, we laughed ourselves silly the whole day. We felt like the biggest rock stars in the world. Josh is different than me. I tried to look low-key it. Josh, we got to Taylor’s camp. He’s like, ‘Hey, you guys got any sushi?’ ‘Oh, let’s get some sushi in here right now.’ We had the best sushi I ever had in my life."

The single Fortnight has broken several records since its release, including becoming the highest single-day stream for a Spotify song. The song also debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, with the highest single-week streaming figure since 2020.