"I had already been turned down by two drama schools," Michael Fassbender was explaining over breakfast. That rejection at 19 led him to London to try his luck auditioning for the Drama Centre there. He had prepared an Iago monologue, had gone over it hundreds of times, but he was still nervous. He had been replaying the words of a director from one of the other drama schools, who had told him that he could recognize an actor from the way he enters a room. "I still hate that."
Before the audition, he was trying to get the director's words out of his mind. "I went to the urinal, and as I was pissing, I saw that someone had written 'Hi, Cookie!' on the wall. Those words were staring at me, as I stood there. I had just finished playing the Cook in a production of 'Mother Courage,' and I had done it with a Scottish accent. Cook; cookie. 'I'll do the Iago monologue in a Scottish accent,' I decided, even though that wasn't how I had prepared it." After the audition, actor was asked why he'd chosen that accent, to which he answered something about it being a way to bring mischief into the piece, which seemed true enough. "It's funny. I haven't thought about that for years and years. I'm not saying what I saw was a sign or anything. But maybe I did sort of take it that way, and that helped me."

"I enjoyed the bar," said Michael, who had grown up clocking long hours at his parents' restaurant. "But, god, I really, really, really wanted to act."

We were talking about his role in the upcoming film adaptation of what theater people call the Scottish Play. It's considered unlucky to call it by its name, "Macbeth" — which is precisely how he refers to it. Actor, who is playing the cursed king, doesn't really buy into prophecies, signs and superstitions. "Except," he said, "that whenever I see a solitary magpie, I salute."

Justin Kurzel, the director of "Macbeth," said of working with Fassbender, "He's so extremely prepared, he's never reaching for words. And in that way he's able to be very open to the conditions of the moment — to whatever is going on that day, to the other people who are around. He can discover something in the moment of doing. That's why he's an artist. That's why he's one of the best around."

He had a lucky feeling about 2007, a sense that it might be an important year. "Maybe because I was born in 1977," he said. "I know that sounds ridiculous. I'm not saying I knew things would work out. I just felt that I had a chance coming my way, and I wanted to be ready for it."

Then in 2007, he auditioned for the role of the I.R.A. leader Bobby Sands. "Hunger" was the feature directorial debut for Steve McQueen, a substantial presence in the British art world but a stranger to filmmaking. Fassbender did not impress McQueen at the first audition. "Either I didn't recognize it, or he didn't bring it," McQueen said. But McQueen's casting director convinced him to call Fassbender back for a second look. "Then he shone," McQueen said. "There was a level of commitment, and engagement, and I saw: This guy is serious."

He talked about how he and the actor Liam Cunningham prepared for their 15-minute, single-shot, Grand Inquisitor-style conversation that is the centerpiece of "Hunger" by running through that scene 10 times a day for 10 days straight in the apartment they shared in Belfast. On the day of filming, Fassbender and Cunningham got it on the fourth take. "It's about finding things," McQueen said. "And the way to find things is through a commitment, and through presence. And that is what Michael has. He is entirely there. Sometimes, with an actor like Michael, they become a sphere — no matter which way they roll, it's perfect."

"Look, he wasn't a McQueen! Or an O'Reilly. He was a Fassbender. He was the odd one out. I think that's an important part of who he is."

The director Danny Boyle said of having Fassbender play the title role in "Steve Jobs," his new biopic of the Apple founder, "It's an enormous burden, a role like that. It's a Shakespearean burden, really, because Jobs is a difficult, world-shaping spirit. And Michael carried it effortlessly. On-set, when the camera's not on, he's totally easy, graceful, funny and careless — apparently careless — and then, he turns on a sixpence and delivers this absolutely ferocious level of concentration and intensity. I've never seen that kind of accuracy before, of being able to just drop into character so instantly." Boyle observed that he felt there was something of Fassbender in his Jobs performance. It's that quality of absolute charm being ferociously applied to the pursuit of perfection in a work."

"I go over the words again and again and again and again. Hundreds of times. It's more of a doing than a thinking thing. I have thoughts about the characters, I learn about them, but that's not necessarily where the majority of the work gets done."

"In high school, I had my first real part in this sketch play, 'Fairy Tales, Fairy Tales, 1, 2, 3.' I was one of the ugly stepsisters. I wore my sister's prom dress. Even though it was a pantomime, I took it very, very seriously."

In the car, as we were returning to the city from skeet shooting, I remembered that magpies are famously never alone. That I didn’t think I had ever seen a magpie alone. ‘‘Aren’t they always in pairs?’’ I asked Fassbender. ‘‘I guess that’s why you salute a single one,’’ he said. ‘‘They’re supposed to be in twos. My dad has said to me, 'How are you seeing all these solitary magpies? No one else does.' But, I don't know, I see them all the time."