Stephen Curry and Eric Bana on the great Australian film The Castle that’s now 20 years old

IT’S 20 years since The Castle premiered and stars Eric Bana and Stephen Curry are reflecting on its enduring appeal, and why ‘it’s time to grow another mullet’.

KNOWING 20 years have passed since The Castle doesn’t make Stephen Curry feel old, or nostalgic. It makes him feel “like it’s time to grow another mullet”.

The Castle was a landmark job for Curry — though a screen veteran nowadays, he’d only been on TV a handful of times prior to winning the role of Dale Kerrigan. And not only would he be playing the youngest member of the Kerrigan family, he’d be narrating the movie.

The actor recalls himself, aged only 20, “sitting at the read-through, surrounded by some of my all-time favourite actors, not to mention my comedy heroes in Working Dog, and thinking, ‘Don’t stuff this up, you idiot’.”

RELATED: Stephen Curry reveals The Castle’s funniest lines

The Kerrigan and Petropoulous clans in the 1997 Australian film The Castle: (from left) Anthony Simcoe, Anne Tenney, Michael Caton, Sophie Lee, Eric Bana, Wayne Hope and Stephen Curry.

Eric Bana — who in his very first film role played kickboxing son-in-law Con Petropoulous — remembers that early read-through, too.

“To this day it was the funniest table reading of a script I’ve ever been a part of,” Bana said. “It wasn’t a shock that it turned into such a much-loved comedy. I think it holds up pretty well today.”

Bana jokes that 20 years is “ageing”, but the international star only has happy memories of making The Castle.

“I don’t think there was a day we went to work on that film — not that there were many days, we shot it so quick — that it wasn’t fun.”

Curry’s initial nerves proved baseless, as the Kerrigan family quickly bonded — “Mainly,” he said, “due to them all being super-lovely people.”

The Kerrigan and Petropoulous families sit down for lunch in a scene from The Castle.

Sak Kerrigan (played by Anne Tenney) with husband Darryl (Michael Caton) at the house built with love and many shared memories.

More difficult, he added, “was keeping from Sophie Lee that I had a terrible crush on her as a teenager”.

The “Kerrigans” still get along famously when they run into each other. But reunions are usually interrupted when, Curry explains: “Someone walks past yelling, ‘How much for jousting sticks?’, before laughing and high-fiving a friend, safe in the knowledge that they were the first to think of it.”

Michael Caton, who will next be seen in Ben Elton’s movie comedy Three Summers, in a scene with Stephen Curry from The Castle.

Indeed, two decades later, Curry still can’t shake Dale Kerrigan.

“Any time I feel I’ve shaken him, someone yells his name in my direction and I’m reminded he’s somewhere nearby.”

The reason The Castle is still so loved, Curry believes, is because it has heart.

“The comedy is timeless and the characters are all relatable, but it’s the emotional heart of the film that really makes it stand the test of time.”

Sophie Lee, as Tracey Petropoulous, with her mum Sal, played by Anne Tenney, in a scene from The Castle.

Tiriel Mora (as lawyer Dennis Denuto), the late Charles 'Bud' Tingwell (retired barrister Lawrence Hammill QC) and Michael Caton (Darryl Kerrigan) outside the High Court of Australia.

RELATED: The 100 must-see movies before you die

Originally published as Stephen Curry and Eric Bana on the great Australian film The Castle that’s now 20 years old