Playing a glass artist demanded that Neve Campbell handle and manipulate actual hot, molten glass on the set. Her challenge was not only to appear convincing, artistically on the screen, but also to master enough of the technical side so that she could safely work with and around materials and ovens that are heated to well over 2,000 degrees. In preparation, she took a series of intensive classes in all aspects of glassblowing and glass casting.
Campbell immediately took to the craft, and displayed an innate skill that so impressed her instructors that she was given an open invitation to join the glassblowing program at Canada's prestigious Sheridan College. As her instructor proudly stated, "If Neve ever wants to give up acting, she has a great future as an artist."
"Glassblowing is an incredible art," says Campbell. "It's also challenging because it can be very dangerous. I found it very difficult to appear totally relaxed when we were doing those scenes, to look like that was something I did every day. Aside from the danger, the tools are quite heavy and working with them takes a great deal of physical strength. I'm very fortunate that I've had years of dance training. That training helped in providing the strength and stamina that I needed, even for the very few pieces that I actually worked on within the movie."
While Matthew Perry and Oliver Platt didn't have to learn a specific art form for "Three To Tango," they were assigned with portraying architects. Platt came to the movie with a strong, practical understanding of architecture: "It's really funny, but it seems that almost all my relatives are architects. My great grandfather was a very well known architect in his time, as was my grandfather. I have several cousins and uncles who are also in the field. I think that my greatest practical exposure to architecture has to be through the constant renovations on my house. As my own family grows, we just keep on renovating."
Perry, not having had the benefit of Platt's architectural lineage, took a more straightforward approach to his research. "I'm kind of busy throughout the year, with 'Friends' the MONSTER HIT that it is, so I didn't have time to actually go to architecture school," says Perry. "Our director was kind enough, however, to send me a huge package of magazines and books on the subject. I found them very interesting, but I don't think I'm going to race out and start designing actual buildings anytime soon."
In the story, the characters of Oscar and Peter are faced with creating a massive scale model of their design for Charles' new project. Taking their cue from the script, the two actors decided to hone their architectural skills with a practical challenge. Their first day on location in Toronto, Perry and Platt commandeered a large, empty soundstage and there, for many hours, they painstakingly went to work on a deluxe children's erector set.
"We built a Giraffe Hypnotizer," explains Perry. "It was originally going to be a big crane but, this is better! The device is an elaborate pulley system that attracts the runaway giraffe and then, you twist a lever and a medallion sways back and forth and calms the animal. I certainly think it was about time that somebody made one of those."