Josh Charles Thought Ethan Hawke Was "Punking" Him About Being in Taylor Swift Music Video

Dead Poets Society alum Josh Charles thought the Taylor Swift video appearance was a prank.

By Nicole Drum

It's the crossover that no one expected, when Taylor Swift released the music video for "Fortnight", the lead single off of her The Tortured Poets Department album last month and gave fans a surprise Dead Poets Society reunion of sorts as the video featured appearance from actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, but as it turns out, it wasn't just fans who were surprised. Charles revealed during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that he thought Hawke was "punking" him when asked to be in the video.

"It was a really strange thing. Taylor knows Ethan's daughter Maya and reached out to her. The title of the album [is] obviously The Tortured Poets Department and so I think it's a little tip of the cap to Dead Poets Society, other tortured poets," Charles said. "She probably had this idea [that] it'd be interesting for us to be in the video."

He continued, "Ethan reached out to me and once I got over thinking he was punking me — when he first called me, I said, 'dude, are you bullsh-tting me right now?'"

As it turns out, Hawke was being very serious. In the video, Hawke and Charles appear as doctors trying to get Swift's character to forget her affair with Post Malone's character. In her social media post introducing the video, Swift even acknowledged the Dead Poets Society connection.

"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. Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another," she wrote. "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). 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). 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!!"

Related:

Is Taylor Swift Appearing in Deadpool 3?

While the Dead Poets Society reunion was a fun surprise in the "Fortnight" music video, fans are hoping for another surprise when it comes to Swift and Deadpool & Wolverine. One of the biggest rumors surrounding Deadpool 3 is that the eagerly anticipated film could feature Swift in a cameo role as Alison Blaire/Dazzler, a beloved mutant pop star with the ability to bend light. Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy — who himself previously appeared in Swift's All Too Well: The Short Film — previously addressed the possibility.

"They sure are loud," Levy said, referring to fans of Swift wanting the superstar to play Dazzler. "I'm going across the board. 'No comment' because that's a double whammy. That's Taylor-related. And it's MCU-related. I'm no dummy. You're going to have to wait and see."

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