(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Jessica Chastain heated up soy ice cream and then drank it to pack on pounds for The Help.

The actress is Celia Foote in the drama, which is set in 1960s Mississippi. It's based on the book by Kathryn Stockett and follows an aspiring journalist who writes a book about how African American maids are treated in white households.

Celia is new to the town where the story is set and her fashionable clothing and blonde hair make her stand out. She had to pack on weight for the role, so took drastic steps to boost her figure.

"I had to be soft and curvy, so I ate a lot of soy," she explained. "Soy helps you become curvy because it has oestrogen in it. So what I would do - and this is really gross - is buy cartons of soy ice cream, microwave it and drink it. It was disgusting, [but] wait till you see my boobs in the movie."

In the end Jessica's weight escalated by 15lbs. She was accepting of her new shape, even though it made shooting hard. The 30-year-old was regularly manipulated into tight corsets to ensure her costume and shape was believable.

"It was like a form of torture because you put on all this weight and then you're in the South where it's really hot and muggy and you're putting on girdles to suck you in," she told E! Online.

Jessica found it easy to drop the excess pounds after the film wrapped. She's a fan of yoga and that helped, as did the vegan diet which she follows.

Emma Stone plays wannabe writer Skeeter Phelan in The Help, with Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard and Octavia Spencer also appearing. (C) Cover Media