Ever since a stage adaptation of The Castle was announced, fans have been asking Stephen Curry if he will reprise his role as dimwitted Dale Kerrigan.
“My only response is: ‘I have range, but I don’t think I can play 16,’” the actor tells Stellar with a laugh as he gears up to play King Arthur in a different beloved comedy, the upcoming revival of Monty Python’s Spamalot.
The famed monarch of Camelot is Curry’s third fictional reign after he starred as Aussie TV king Graham Kennedy in the award-winning 2007 biopic The King and then donned blue face paint as the alien King Yakan in 2022’s Thor: Love And Thunder.
“I was on Thor for four days and basically sat in a make-up chair for most of the time,” he jokes of his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role in the action adventure blockbuster.
Now 50, Curry is almost the same age Michael Caton was when the veteran star played his father, Daryl, in The Castle. Yet, Curry wouldn’t want to be the one to slip into Daryl’s legendary moccasins for the stage revival of the 1997 comedy.
“I wouldn’t have the balls to do that,” he says.
“The closest I’ll come to being involved is hopefully getting a ticket to see it. I can’t wait. I think it’s the fastest show to sell out of Her Majesty’s [Theatre].
“Anything those guys [at Working Dog, the production company behind the comedy] touch turns to gold, and it will be exactly 30 years since the film came out. So, there’s a nice symmetry to it.”
Even though The Castle remains the funniest script he has ever read, Curry says he had no idea that it would become so deeply embedded in pop culture.
So much so that nearly three decades later, primary school kids still approach him – usually at the urging of their parents – to quote his character’s famous line: “I dug a hole!”
Having been on the receiving end of fan quotes since the film’s release, Curry’s only advice ahead of the show’s opening night in March is clear: “Get the quotes out pretty quickly, or every single night, some arsehole in row four is going to yell it out!”
Curry likens the comedy’s enduring popularity to the hit Aussie children’s show Bluey, describing it as a warm hug from a family where you’re always accepted and loved.
He also feels forever bonded to the rest of the Kerrigan clan.
“We shot that film in 11 days,” he recalls of the movie about a suburban battler fighting to save his home from an airport expansion. “I haven’t watched it now for maybe a decade.
“But I had seen it about six times before that, so I feel like I’ve spent more time with them than I actually have.
“When we see each other, we just get along like a house on fire … The brevity of [the film’s shoot] is probably part and parcel of what makes it such a special memory for us – we didn’t get a chance to get sick of each other.”
THE CASTLE REUNION
Curry reveals he recently stayed with Caton during a visit to Sydney, and the pair drew plenty of attention when they went to have a drink at the popular brewery, The Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre.
“They’ve got a pool room at the back and it’s modelled on The Castle,” he adds.
“They’ve got all this memorabilia as a nod to it and suffice to say that we didn’t pay for dinner financially, but we did pay for it in other ways because they made us recreate the pool-playing shot from The Castle.”
While Curry was happy to play along, his screen dad was a little less tolerant of the requests. “I love Michael to bits but they had one go at that photo,” he says with a laugh.
“I’d have given them three. One go, and he was done.
“He was like [adopting a gruff, Caton-esque cadence]: ‘I have done other things!’ and it was like, you know what? Fair enough.”
As for Curry’s own sons, Arlo, 14, and Beau, 12, they still haven’t seen the movie that made him a household name.
“They think they’ve seen The Castle because they’ve heard pretty much every line from it from people at shopping centres and from passing buses, but no, they haven’t,” he adds, laughing.
Ahead of making his stage debut in Spamalot – which was co-written by British comedy legend and original Python member Eric Idle with Grammy Award-winning musician John Du Prez – Curry introduced his boys to the 1975 comedy film on which the show is based, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, and was delighted they found it just as funny as he did when his own parents introduced him to it 40-odd years ago.
“I think that’s just the inherent silliness in it is so appealing to their sense of humour, which is very similar to mine and never going to be described as highbrow,” he says.
“The beauty of the show is the moment that it threatens to get serious, it becomes more ridiculous, and that’s pretty much my life.
“So I don’t feel like it’s that much of a stretch for me.
“And this really serious song I get to sing is one of the most absurd onstage performances you’ll ever see.
“So that’s right up my alley. I think it’s going to be magnificent.”
Monty Python’s Spamalot opens at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre on September 16 and heads to Sydney in October. Visit drewanthonycreative.com.au