‘Muscle spasms’: Jennifer’s Oscars dress was a nightmare to wear

Jennifer Garner's black Versace gown at this year's Academy Awards was totally breathtaking – in more ways than one.

Speaking to Jimmy Fallon this week, the newly divorced star admitted that the strapless corseted dress was pretty horrific to wear.

"It's so intense," she said of the process of getting fitted into a custom-made gown.

"This was Versace, and they made it just for me. What they do is they move your organs around," she joked, before explaining what really went down.

"There are basically two men who come in with screwguns, and they screwed me into a metal corset – this isn't true, but it was a metal corset and it did take two Italian people. The next thing you know, my ribs were compressed.

"There's metal inside and these people just kind of move your ribs and they move your liver out of the side and they pop you in. To keep you in place, you step into a bodysuit first, which is like the bottom of a leotard, but it's a thong."

But it was during the Oscars ceremony itself that poor Jen really began to suffer, with pains in her ribs and muscle spasms – and had to rope one of her best friends in to help.

"I said, 'I'm going to have to stand up. I can't breathe. I'm going to have to stand up.'

"And she said, 'If you stand up, they'll think you're Kanye West. They're going to think you're protesting. You can't stand up! You have to sit down.' We're laughing, and that makes it worse."

After eventually making it to the bathroom during an ad break, Jennifer described the stress of actually trying to get out of the gown to do her thing on the loo.

"The connection of the bodysuit, because it had a hook and eye situation, was in an intimate position. I was like, in my vageen, OK?!

"I couldn't reach it, you know what I'm saying? So, I said to my friend, 'I don't know what's going to happen, but I think you've got to get this.' I couldn't reach it.

"She's a good friend. She said, 'If this has to be done, it has to be done, but listen: I want you to give it a good college try.'"

"Eventually it worked out, and I'm going to get those ribs removed anyway."

What an ordeal – she's some trooper!