The One Thing Ethan Hawke Thanked His Daughter For Will Delight Swifties
Forget the agent — Ethan Hawke’s slot beside Taylor Swift in Fortnight came courtesy of daughter Maya, and the internet is swooning. A family assist turned a music video cameo into the sweetest Hollywood power move.
Ethan Hawke showing up in Taylor Swift's Fortnight video wasn’t some agent-to-agent deal. It was a family group chat special. His daughter, Maya Hawke (yep, Stranger Things), is the one who handed him the invite. And now Ethan is out here talking about Swift like he just got front-row seats to a supernova.
The text that started it
Hawke told Variety the whole thing began when Maya texted him: 'Hey Dad, Taylor Swift wants your number.' That turned into Hawke and his longtime pal Josh Charles popping up in Swift’s Fortnight video, which she wrote and directed herself. He’s still buzzing about the experience, and not quietly.
'That woman is incredible... To watch her empower herself to direct these videos and take it all on the chin and be willing to stand out front, it is not easy. You meet her and you’re like, Oh, I know why you’re famous. You’re amazing! You are not the average bear. She’s a force of nature. It’s easy to make fun and it’s easy to be armchair critical and stuff. It’s hard to do anything.'
That’s a veteran actor who has seen a lot of sets basically saying: this one is different. He even thanked Maya not just for the gig, but for introducing him to what he now calls a 'force of nature' in modern music.
Fortnight, the video: Swift goes full filmmaker
Fortnight dropped in April 2024 as the lead single from The Tortured Poets Department, and Swift leaned hard into the cinema of it all. It’s a stark black-and-white piece with that cool, old-movie sheen, and the tone is all hushed emotion and uneasy memory. Hawke and Charles play shadowy figures circling the song’s themes of time, regret, and creative obsession. The big takeaway: Swift isn’t just dabbling behind the camera. The visual choices are as intentional and layered as her lyrics, which is why critics and fans haven’t shut up about her direction since.
Wait, why wasn’t Swift up for the 2026 Grammys?
If you were surprised she didn’t show up in the nominations — especially after The Life of a Showgirl racked up record-breaking numbers — here’s the boring but crucial detail: eligibility windows. The Recording Academy’s period for that year ran from September 1, 2024 through August 30, 2025. The Life of a Showgirl came out October 3, 2025. Translation: not eligible. Not a snub — just a calendar problem.
- Fortnight video release: April 2024
- Album: The Tortured Poets Department (Fortnight is the lead single)
- Video credits: written and directed by Taylor Swift; features Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles
- The Life of a Showgirl release: October 3, 2025
- 2026 Grammy window: September 1, 2024 – August 30, 2025
- Result: The Life of a Showgirl will compete at the 2027 Grammys
The conversation around her 'snub' says more about her gravitational pull than anything else. And honestly, the timing might help her — the album will be fresh when 2027 voters sit down with their ballots.
Bottom line: Maya Hawke brokered a cool little crossover, Ethan Hawke got a front-row seat to Swift-the-director, and Swift continues to expand her film brain while her next Grammy run quietly lines up on the calendar.