Eating ice cream for nearly every meal doesn't sound half bad until you realize the inevitable weight gain that comes with it.

Colin Farrell packed on 40 pounds drinking melted-down ice cream for eight weeks to get ready for his role in "The Lobster," which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last week. He would consume at least four to five pints a day.

"There was a sort of sadness to it. It felt sad," Farrell told The Hollywood Reporter. "I was grounded in a way and it changed me physically."

Despite the unpleasant experience, the physical change allowed the Irish actor to separate himself from the character.

"It was great. It created a separation from the Colin that I'm used to, I suppose," he said. "But I think it did create a separation that helped me."

"The Lobster" takes place in a dystopian future where single people must find a mate within 45 days or get turned into an animal and released into the wild. The film written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos also stars Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly and Ben Whishaw.