Stephen Curry has long wanted to play a "bad guy" in a film.

Maybe a robber, he thought, or a shonky man who occasionally sold VHS players from the back of his car.

So when a casting agent was writing down a list of names for a new Australian thriller, Hounds of Love, she tacked his on the end.

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"Director Ben Young looked at it and went, 'Ah OK'. I think he thought it was a typo or something," Curry told News Breakfast.

At first glance you can imagine why.

The Aussie actor is perhaps best known for his kind-hearted turn as young Dale Kerrigan in The Castle. The iconic family film has become entrenched in the national canon and the line, "Dale dug a hole" is still quoted in some circles.

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In the two decades since then, Curry has honed his comedic credentials in films like Thunderstruck and The Wog Boy.

So it's something of a shock to see Curry take on the role of a demented killer in Hounds of Love.

"I play John White, who is basically a psychopath, the worst human imaginable," he said.

"He and his wife get their kicks out of abducting young women and murdering them, basically. There is no way around it."

It's a change of pace so severe Curry admits he even surprised himself.

"I wanted to play someone a bit bad. I didn't mean this, by the way, can we just clarify that," he joked.

'I owe my career to The Castle'

No-one could have really predicted the sleeper hit of 1997 would become so big, but Curry said if anything it had grown more beloved over time.

"It is 21 years since we shot the film and I owe pretty much every part of my career since then to working on it," he said.

"It is one of those films that resonates today as much, if not more, than it did when it came out."

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The secret, he said, is the family love at the centre of the story.

"What I've been thinking about this film too, it is one of the very few, in fact the only successful comedy I can think of about a family that is about functionality.

"It's about how much a family love each other and they don't get the comedy out of dysfunctionality or how they detest each other, which is most comedies."

Curry has since flexed his acting muscles, taking on the role of legendary television host Graham Kennedy for the TV movie The King in 2007.

"It was kind of one of those moments where I thought maybe I can do this and imagine maybe a bit more diversity for my roles," he said.

Still, it was quite another thing to prepare for Hounds of Love.

'I haven't got an appetite for this'

Curry admits the way he responds to comedic scripts is quite different to the way he makes a thriller film, and the acting prowess of his co-stars made this latest experience more raw and real.

"I do a lot of comedy and lot of that is just pretendies and you just kind of read the thing and try to make it as funny as possible," he said.

Sorry, this audio has expired Stephen Curry on why he was drawn to Hounds of Love

"But seeing Ashleigh Cummings' performance, who plays the victim [in Hounds of Love], she is so heartbreaking, she absolutely nails this role, to a point where it was impossible to extricate yourself.

"The moment you realise this happens to real people, you feel a sense of responsibility to tell this story as truthfully and as honestly and as bare-faced as possible."

Having said that, it's not a role Curry will keep gravitating towards.

"I haven't got an appetite for this sort of stuff," he said.

"I don't think it's the sort of thing you want to be typecast as."