Jessica Chastain Recalls Eating Grits with Viola Davis on 'The Help': 'They Wanted Us Curvier' (Exclusive)

The Academy Award winner paid tribute to her former costar at the 48th Chaplin Award Gala presented by Film At Lincoln Center in New York City

Jessica Chastain has fond memories of making The Help with Viola Davis.

On Monday, the Academy Award winner paid tribute to her former costar who was honored with the 48th Chaplin Award, recalling to PEOPLE how much fun they had while filming The Help.

"You know, we all had such a good time on The Help and we all had to gain weight because they wanted us to be curvier and that was a lot of fun," Chastain, 46, tells PEOPLE. "All of us gals in Mississippi eating grits and caramel cake. Oh, we had a really good time."

"They got us special food. It wasn't typical crafty," she adds of production going a step further than the usual snacks served at craft services. "It was like full-on 'gain weight' [food]."

As for honoring Davis, 57, along with a fellow legend like Meryl Streep, Chastain joked that she was a bit confused — though Chastain holds three Oscar nominations and one win in 2022 for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

"I'm nervous. Literally, I'm like, what am I doing in this room?" she humbly shares. "But when Viola asks, I run, I'll do what she — I am at her beck and call. So I am very happy to be here. I cannot hold the candle to some of the other luminaries in this room, but I'll do my best to honor her, as best as I can."

Related:Viola Davis Was Unaware Michael Jordan Personally Cast Her as His Mom in 'AIR' : 'Blew My Mind'

The Help earned Viola Davis her second Oscar nomination, but years later she said she regretted making the movie. Davis clarified that she's still grateful for the bonds she made with Chastain, Emma Stone, Allison Janney and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Davis played Aibileen Clark, a maid working for a socialite white family in the 1960s, while Octavia Spencer played another maid being mistreated by the family she worked for. (Spencer won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2012 for her role.) The movie sees both women rise above their situations and fight back against injustice, but Davis later admitted in an interview with The New York Times that she disapproves of the way the story was told.

Related:Viola Davis and Woman King Director Defend Against Backlash Calling for Boycott of Movie

"I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn't the voices of the maids that were heard," Davis said in 2018. "I know Aibileen. I know Minny. They're my grandma. They're my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie."

"But not in terms of the experience and the people involved because they were all great," she added of her appreciation of hanging with the ensemble on set. "The friendships that I formed are ones that I'm going to have for the rest of my life. I had a great experience with these other actresses, who are extraordinary human beings. And I could not ask for a better collaborator than [writer-director] Tate Taylor."

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Inside Alice Tully Hall at NYC's Lincoln Center on Monday, Chastain spoke of Davis's extraordinary talent (and nailed her speech gauging by the cheers from the responsive audience).

"There are not enough words in the dictionary, not enough minutes in a lifetime to sing the praises that this woman deserves," Chastain said of the EGOT winner, expanding on some of her notable achievements as Davis took it all in with her husband of 20 years, Julius Tennon, by her side.

"These accomplishments barely scratch the surface of her incredible spirit," the A Doll's House Broadway star added. "She is Viola. The humanitarian. The mother. The wife. And I feel extraordinarily lucky to say, my friend."

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