Taylor Swift wasn’t playing games when she collaborated with Post Malone for the “Fortnight” music video.
Nearly two months after releasing the finished product, the Grammy winner is ready to share new behind-the-scenes footage from shooting day.
“This is basically, in my mind, taking place in the tortured poets department, which is a government municipal building where they study the behaviors and minds of poets,” Swift, 34, explained in the clip released Friday, June 21. “One of the stereotypical things about poets over the years is people said they were crazy. … Nothing says crazy like a slight tilt to the head.”
Swift’s vision, however, isn’t complete until Post Malone, 28, arrives on set for a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration. As soon as he arrives, the “Sunflower” artist is captivated by a working typewriter.
“We don’t see working typewriters,” Swift said when looking at her coworker’s shocked face. “Millennials don’t see that s–t.”
Once filming officially begins, that’s when the real magic begins. As Swift shares her vision for each scene, Post Malone responds with a polite, “Yes, ma’am.”
“It’s all about these visual effects that become something else, right?” Swift explained. “The thing I really love about being on set is sometimes you figure out the shot two seconds before you do it and it makes all the difference. We were just going to be standing there staring at each other, lying on the floor. I was like, ‘What about a book?’ And then I put an Easter egg on the book. Something about getting here puts more pressure on you to put details into what you are doing, and I really love when that happens.”
Before filming wraps, Post Malone can’t hide his awe of Swift’s abilities as he remarks, “It’s f–king amazing. I think it’s stunning. One-take Tay!”
Swift, however, is equally in awe of her music video partner after a scene wraps. “Cut,” she shouts. “That was stunning!”
“Fortnight” is the first single from Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. The song broke the record for the highest single-day streams on the streaming platform Spotify.
“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 wrote via X when first releasing the video in April. “Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another. … 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.”
