Zoe Saldana insists she didn’t suffer mental breakdown after ‘Avatar’

Washington: Actress Zoe Saldana has stepped out to clarify reports that claim she suffered a mental breakdown after filming Avatar, insisting comments she made to a magazine have been misconstrued.

The sexy star told Latina magazine that the promotion and success of the sci-fi epic took its toll on her physically and emotionally, admitting she burst into tears in a Paris hotel and couldn’t control her sobbing. “The year after Avatar was just emotionally overwhelming. I was travelling all over the world, waking up in different time zones. Your body gets exhausted, and by the end of the year I just collapsed,” she had told the publication then. “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 (new film) Colombiana, to pick myself up. Thank God my family was there,” she said. But now she’s backtracking a little, insisting she didn’t suffer a breakdown and the tears were tears of joy. “It was definitely misconstrued, the statement that I made... It was such a beautiful rollercoaster and we (Avatar cast and crew) had no idea we were gonna break records on so many levels and that this movie... was gonna touch so many hearts from all over the world,” Contactmusic quoted Saldana as saying on Access Hollywood Live. “We started the whole world tour and you’re expelling so much energy, so that by the time the awards season was over... my body just needed to relax. It was kind of like shutting down. “It was such an emotional thing and I do know that everybody from, like, the director, the producer and the rest of the cast... went away with their families afterwards and they kinda hid for a while because you needed to refuel. “There was no nervous breakdown... It was just a beautiful journey that exhausted me,” she added.