{blackbabes} Zoe Saldana: Childhood bullying made me 'stronger'

Like many of her fellow celebs, A-list actress Zoe Saldana wasn't always one of the cool kids.

In her cover interview for Ocean Drive magazine's December issue, the Out of the Furnace star says that when she and her sisters moved to the Dominican Republic with their mother following their father's death, she didn't fit in at her new school.

"It was culture shock at first. Kids are going to poke at whatever is foreign to them, and here we come: these three girls speaking English. We're also very intelligent and kind of sassy, and we were going to a very prestigious private school and we were one of the least fortunate families," Saldana recalls. "Kids tend to be a little cruel to what they don't know. But even though throughout those years we kind of suffered because we got bullied, as soon as we left we just became these forces. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and it was not going to kill us, trust me!"

She added that her experience with bullying made her "absolutely fearless. I've been called everything, I've been told everything. And yet the moment you realize they were coming from a place of complete fear because they knew that you were the one who was going to get away, you're free."

She shared more about keeping her personal life private, Nina Simone backlash and her production company.

On staying private in the press: "I love what I do so much, but I love my (personal) life more. And I realized throughout the years of being in this business that the only way to maintain some kind of sanity is to protect that which is most dear to you, which is your life and everyone that's in it. ... I like respecting all of the family members that are in my life and my friends. These are people that choose to be in my life; they're not choosing to be in what I do. So I owe it to them to keep them protected."

On controversy surrounding the Nina Simone biopic: "I can't stop to think about who thinks me to be black enough or not black enough. I know who I am. I like who I am. And I'm not going to explain who I am. I've always been like that — I was raised to be that way. ... It's one of the scariest projects I've ever been involved with because it was about an iconic figure, and there were so many political (issues) around it from the beginning, but I really wanted it to be a love song to Nina Simone and I wanted it to just come from a place of absolute love."

On working with her sisters on their production company Cinestar: "It's what I've wanted to do my whole life, to always be with my sisters and work with them. Now we're finally reaping the benefits of all these years that we've been planning, working, and starting our own company." Their plan is to "shed light on the Hispanic market ... a growing and thriving population in America, filled with consumers, voters, tax payers, and avid vocal speakers. We want to finally be able to make projects that, somewhere or another, have a Hispanic presence."

A Christmas Carol