Published Friday, 07 December 2012
The Atonement star is set to tackle one of the Bard's most famous characters at London's Trafalgar Studio venue from 9 February until 27 April.
The 33-year-old is delighted to be portraying the Scottish monarch onstage before he gets "too old".
He tells the Daily Mail newspaper: "I don't think there's any age he has to be, but in my mind he's a captain of men and doing the fighting. He's someone who has recently found out what it's like to rip someone's head off, stick it on a pike and stick it on a castle, and that sounds to me like a young man's game.
"Whenever I see Macbeth he's 40-plus. Anyway, my point is that I've always wanted to play him, and I've always wanted to do it before I hit my 40s."