Taylor Swift Reveals Video for Post Malone Collaboration “Fortnight”: Watch
Taylor Swift has released the music video for her new Post Malone collaboration, “Fortnight, from her newly released album, The Tortured Poets Department. Alongside Swift and Malone, the video stars Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, who previously appeared together in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society.
Swift wrote and directed the video herself. It opens with Swift in a wedding gown, restrained to a hospital bed in an institution. After being given a pill, she fantasizes/hallucinates various situation involving Malone’s character. Eventually, though, reality sets back in and Swift finds herself attached to a gurney, undergoing some sort of shock therapy.
“When I was writing the ‘Fortnight’ music video, I wanted to show you the worlds I saw in my head that served as the backdrop for making this music,” Swift explained. “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. Post Malone blew me away on set as our tortured tragic hero and I’m so grateful to him for everything he put into this collaboration. I’m still laughing from getting to work with the coolest guys on earth, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles (tortured poets, meet your colleagues from down the hall, the dead poets).”
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“I still can’t believe I get to work with the unfathomably brilliant Rodrigo Prieto on cinematography and my team of dream collaborators: Ethan Tobman (production design), Chancler Haynes (editor), Anthony Dimino (1st AD), Jil Hardin (producer) and Dom Thomas (executive producer),” Swift added. “Parliament aced the VFX as always. Joseph Cassell, Lorrie Turk and Jemma Muradian made these tortured looks come to life. The entire crew made this a dream to shoot. Thank you to everyone involved and everyone who has watched it!!”
On “Fortnight,” Swift sings about a short-lived romance, which if taken literally, only lasted two weeks (or a fortnight in British English). A more general song about love, it doesn’t appear to reference a specific relationship, though she briefly dated 1975 singer Matty Healy last year.
Malone joins Swift on the second verse and throughout the remainder of “Fortnight,” emphasizing some of the song’s more morose moments by echoing lyrics like, “I love you, it’s ruining my life.”
“Fortnight” marks Swift and Malone’s first time working together. In a statement, Swift wrote, “I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever. I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on ‘Fortnight.’”
Be sure to check out our very own Mary Siroky’s review of the sprawling double album. Plus, read about Swift dissing Kim Kardashian on “thanK you aIMee” and learn how her good pal Emma Stone contributed to “Florida!!!”
Swift is gearing up for the UK/European leg (tickets here) and second North American run (tickets here) of “The Eras Tour,” while Post Malone is set for headlining appearances at Governors Ball and Bonnaroo.
