Jennifer Connelly has always had a slim figure, but she says she had to tone it down quite a bit in order to play a homeless woman in her new film, Shelter.

The actress, who was directed in the movie by her husband Paul Bettany, said she did a lot of research for the role in order to understand how to play a drug addict.

“There was so much work to do about her (Hannah) and the circumstances of her life that I knew nothing about. I had a lot of practical research to do. Slowly, over months, I lost a lot of weight and ultimately lost about 25 pounds. I wanted to be quite comfortable with her and I had no experience of using needles, so I spent a lot of time working on that so I could be quite at ease; practising using the paraphernalia,” she told ContactMusic.com.

Connelly and her husband will be honored at the 20th Artwalk NY to benefit the Coalition for the Homeless, which takes place the day before Halloween and will feature works by Chuck Close, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, and Roxy Paine, among others.

While fans of Labyrinth, the 1986 film starring Connelly and David Bowie, were happy to hear recently that Jim Henson Company is planning a sequel, it’s not been confirmed whether the actress will be signing on for it.