Zoe Saldana: 'Mental breakdown remarks were blown out of proportion'

Zoe Saldana is setting the record straight over the mental breakdown she reportedly suffered following the record-breaking success of Avatar, insisting the incident was "completely blown out of proportion".

The sexy star, who shot to superstardom in 2009 after featuring in James Cameron's sci-fi epic, previously revealed to Latina magazine she had been left mentally exhausted after the whirlwind success of Avatar and suggested she had suffered an emotional breakdown as she prepared to play a steely assassin in her action follow-up, Colombiana.

She said, "The year after Avatar was just emotionally overwhelming. I was traveling all over the world, waking up in different time zones. Your body gets exhausted, and by the end of the year I just collapsed... I was sitting in my hotel room, and I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't stay awake. I must have slept for an entire month. It took me the rest of the year, even as I was working and shooting Colombiana, to pick myself up. Thank God my family was there."

However, Saldana is adamant the media made too much of the 2011 quotes and claims it really wasn't as bad as reporters made it sound.

Sitting down for another interview with Latina, she says, "That was completely blown out of proportion. That was so exaggerated and so ridiculous.

"It's no different than what a child does after you've had a birthday party for a child. The child has been so stimulated by everybody, in every direction, consistently, you feel depleted. You use so much serotonin that you feel, not empty, but you feel a little tired and depleted and you have to fill your well of energy and of happiness and you have to pay attention to you. That downtime was very welcoming and very beautiful, but it wasn't like I got f**king depressed and I just wouldn't get out of bed. That has never happened to me! I hate when you say something and then it's like, ay dios mio (oh my god)..."