Margot Robbie has revealed she signed up to star in Z For Zachariah, to show off her acting range.

The Australian actress stars in Craig Zobel’s big-screen adaptation of Robert C O’Brien’s sci-fi novel, alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Chris Pine, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

The 24-year-old, who played Leonardo DiCaprio’s screen wife Naomi Lapaglia in Martin Scorsese’s financial drama, was eager for a change afterwards.

She said: “I was very keen to prove I could handle a role like this, after The Wolf Of Wall Street. That worked out well and people wanted me to keep doing roles like that, which wasn’t what I wanted at the time.

“I wanted to prove aesthetically, I could be a younger character, not a glamorous character, so I was really happy that this movie could provide that… And delving into characters is an actor’s dream. That’s the stuff you really want to focus on.”

Z For Zachariah cast
Margot Robbie with co-stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Chris Pine, and director Craig Zobel (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

The film follows the trio of survivors, after a nuclear war.

Chiwetel explained: “I was so excited of the idea of doing this and working with people like Chris and Margot in this very detailed way of these characters and story, and to build tension through narrative and really simple story-telling.

“And with a director like Craig, who is really able to discover the subtleties and the nuances but not make them obtuse or abstract, but make them completely relateable, present and modern.”

His co-star Chris added: “The fact that it really had nothing to do with the apocalypse, zombies or war, it was just a great excuse to explore in a very distilled way the relationship between these three people. It’s what happens when modern life and conveniences are stripped away and you gotta fight for your place on the totem pole of life.”

The 34-year-old actor, best known for playing Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek films, admitted he wouldn’t fare well if he was left in a real-life apocalypse.

“Pretty poorly,” he said. “If we were a tribe, I would be the guy trying to make you laugh or cry. I would not be killing anything for you, not cutting up the meat. I’d probably be the first to go – as the arts always are.”