Zoe Saldana suffered from ADD

Actress Zoe Saldana suffered from attention deficit disorder (ADD) when she was a teenager, but ballet lessons helped her conquer the symptoms.

Saldana lost her father in a car crash when she was just nine, following which her mother took her for ballet lessons that helped her overcome the symptoms.

"Had my mum not had the intuitive wisdom to put me in ballet I think she would have eventually opted to concede to the medication the doctors were suggesting," contactmusic.com quoted Saldana as saying.

She added: "I was ADD. I was suffering. I couldn't hold a thought. But there was something about the piano, the barre, your breath, and I became the most quiet, just f***ing lethal little machine with ballet. Then for the next 10 years, I was dancing. It gave me so much peace, it centered me."

The 34-year-old actress spent time in a boarding school in Dominican Republic where she learned to make the most of her basic surroundings.

She said: "You learn to be very creative when you have very little. You outgrow your inner intimidation of things. I got tired of accepting the bullying of all the little rich kids when I was growing up."