Actress/singer Jennifer Hudson had to really dig deep to portray a drug addict in new movie The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister And Pete because she has never been high or drunk in her life.

The Dreamgirls star, 32, admits she couldn't relate to the embattled addicts she met with as research for the coming-of-age drama, so she had to rely on her imagination to put on a convincing performance.

She says, "I'm playing a heroin addict and I've been sober my entire life, so preparing for the role, I would see recovering addicts and they would describe their stories and explain to me..., 'You know what it's like when you're drunk?' And I'm like, 'God, I don't know.' Like, I had no clue and nothing to pull from."