For "RHOD" star and "Miss Congeniality" actor LeeAnne Locken, one of the more difficult parts of "Miss Congeniality" was attempting to learn how to make balloon animals. That was Miss Nebraska's talent for the Miss United States pageant, and Locken worked alongside a real-life clown to try and learn how to do it herself. She told Bravo's The Daily Dish how on the bus to set, she and the clown would work on making animals. Locken got made fun of for her attempts, recalling, "I couldn't pop the poodle's tail, so all the girls were like, 'Your poor boyfriend.'"

The talent show montage scene was uploaded to Locken's Vimeo profile. She also recalled to The Daily Dish a conversation she and Donald Petrie (the film's director) had as she tried to make a balloon animal during the scene: "[Petrie] walked over to me and was like, 'Is this all you know how to do?' And I'm like, 'Dude, it's hard! I'm not a clown! I'm not a balloon artist!' And so he literally had the guy make a balloon thing for me to play with."

When outlining behind-the-scenes secrets of "Miss Congeniality" in 2020, Petrie admitted to E! News, "I didn't know that!" regarding Locken's tenure on "RHOD."