Jack Reynor has revealed director Justin Kurzel cast him in Macbeth without even hearing whether he could do a Scottish accent.

The 23-year-old Irish actor stars alongside Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in the new big screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy as Malcolm, heir to the Scottish throne.

Jack confessed: “It was intimidating, never having done a period film, to throw myself into that. And Justin the director on that movie, he hadn’t even heard my accent, he hadn’t heard me recite any verse, nothing like that. He just went ‘That’s the guy just get him!’

Jack Reynor (Brian Lawless/PA)
Jack Reynor (Brian Lawless/PA)

“So I just went in and did it, and it was great. It was another film where everyone was s***ting themselves so much that they all just got on with it.”

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and Malcolm are sworn enemies, battling for the throne of Scotland.

But Jack revealed off-screen he and fellow Irish actor Michael, who stars as Macbeth, were the best of pals.

Michael Fassbender (Jonathan Short/Invision)
Michael Fassbender (Jonathan Short/Invision)

He said. “I’d know Michael Fassbender prior to it so he and I had a common terra firma that we could hang out on or talk, whatever. It was just a brilliant experience.”

But he insisted they did not talk in Scottish accents between takes.

“Not at all! He kept his big thick hairy [accent]!”

Jack got his big Hollywood break in Transformers: Age Of Extinction last year, and is currently starring in gritty indie flick Glassland. He plays John, a young lad who must ignore his dreams of going travelling with his mates to stay at home and care for his alcoholic mother, played by Toni Collette.

Jack Reynor and Toni Collette play mother and son in Glassland (Element Pictures)
Jack Reynor and Toni Collette play mother and son in Glassland (Element Pictures)

And he admitted he had enjoyed coming back to make the low budget movie in his home town of Dublin.

Jack said: “You definitely do feel a much smaller piece of much larger puzzle when you go and do those tent pole movies, but it’s two completely different things. It was a lot of fun to go and make a big franchise movie, and I’m sure there’ll be others that I’ll make in the future. But I got into the industry because I wanted to make really substantial memorable performances.

“So it was just incredibly gratifying and a very cathartic experience. And one that was beneficial to me in so far as it helped me to reflect on everything I’d done the previous year and come back and be centred again. Because I needed that right after I did Transformers.”