American actress Jessica Chastain has made no secret of her love for durian.

In fact, she loves it so much, she brought one as a gift when she appeared on talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday (April 21) night.

Here's how she described the taste to host Jimmy Kimmel: "I love it. It tastes like onion and garlic and avocado and pineapple, kind of like, in a custard."

Chastain, 39, evidently familiar with the fruit, was equipped with two knives and rubber gloves to guard against its thorny exterior.

She ate it with relish, and convinced host Jimmy Kimmel to take a bite too.

The four-minute video clip of them eating the fruit has been making the rounds on the Internet in Singapore after it was posted on YouTube on Wednesday.

When Chastain pulled the thorny fruit out of a paper bag, Kimmel exclaimed: "Wow, what is that?"

"That is called durian... the king of fruit, in Asia," she replied. She also called it "the blue cheese of fruit".

Kimmel asked Chastain if it she was playing a prank on him, but gamely cut open the fruit, slicing through the durian seeds.

When Kimmel opened the fruit, he turned away, exclaiming: "Oh my god, it attacked me. It's vile!"

"It kind of smells like a garbage can right?" Chastain said.

The Huntsman: Winter's War actress said she had the fruit in Singapore and in Thailand.

Kimmel insisted she ate some first, because he thought "it could be a trick".

After Chastain took a big bite, Kimmel continued to grimace at the morsel in his hand. She then took it and put it in his mouth.

"It's on the line between horrible and delicious," he said.

But later he added, "I feel like throwing up a little bit right now... I think I ate too much of it though."

When the actress was in Singapore in early April, she posted a photo of her self with some durian in Chinatown with the caption "found my favourite fruit".

"I love it. You get past the smell and the first taste, and it's just like you want the second," the 39-year-old told The Straits Times.

She told reporters she fell in love with durian when she was filming in Thailand more than a decade ago.

She makes sure she has it every time she comes to Asia, she said.

"We don't get it in the US, so for us, it's very exotic." she added.