(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Zoe Saldana says she came perilously close to suffering a mental breakdown after working on Avatar.

The 33-year-old starred in the most successful movie ever, which raked in $2.7 billion in box office sales worldwide, but says it all came at a price.

In an interview for the September issue of Latina magazine, Zoe said the year following the 2009 release of Avatar was very stressful and took a toll on her body.

"The year after Avatar was just emotionally overwhelming," the actress said. "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 then went on to begin training for movie Colombiana in Paris but continued to feel unwell.

"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," Zoe shared.

"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."

But the dark-haired beauty says she is enjoying a more low-key lifestyle now and relishes time with her family, including her fianc Keith Britton.

"I just stay at home and do absolutely nothing. When I was younger, that would have made me feel like such a failure. Now that I'm older, I know what it meant to shut down," Zoe revealed.

"I don't shower if I don't want to. I don't answer emails. It's a healthy way of being selfish. You know you're old when gardening, the Food Network and voice notes from your nieces and nephews blow your mind." (C) Cover Media