Zoe Saldana is "proud" of the bruises she got on new movie 'Colombiana'.

The 33-year-old actress can currently be seen in the American/French action film - in which she plays a deadly assassin - and while she does not consider herself a "masochist", she likes to have physical proof of how hard she has worked on a film.

However, she admits he dark bruises raised a few eyebrows at a recent wedding when she was wearing a dress.

She said: "I had this really nice dress on and I was full of bruises on my legs and arms.

"I'm talking about huge black and blue lumps all over my body. My family was mortified, but I take great pride in these bruises. I'm not a masochist but I work really hard and these were proof of the blood, sweat and tears I poured into this role."

From the age of 10 the screen beauty lived in the Dominican Republic, and she admits she was familiar with weapons on the set of 'Colombiana' because there were always guns "around" when she was growing up.

She added to the New York Daily News newspaper: "I grew up around a family of hunters in the Caribbean and guns were always around. I've gone hunting before too. I have a lot of respect for weapons. Now, I obviously didn't know about all the weapons used in this movie, but that allowed me to create my own sort of swagger."