Growing up in a noisy Melbourne household as the two youngest of five children taught Stephen and Bernard Curry they had to fight to be heard. That childhood chaos, paired with the family’s love of the outdoors, turned out to be perfect training for The Amazing Race: Celebrity Edition.
“We had to be twice as loud and say twice as many things,” Steve, 49, tells TV WEEK. “Most of it didn’t mean a whole lot, but we were certainly heard!”
Their parents encouraged adventure, whether that was camping, riding motorbikes or gutting fish. Those lessons carried into the competition, where the brothers found themselves thriving under pressure.
“Production asked what were our special skills, and all we could come up with was gutting fish and reversing trailers,” Steve says. “No spoilers, but one of those actually comes in handy!”
While their run was filled with laughs, the pair also found themselves reflecting on the loss of their father, Neville.
“I think he would have absolutely loved watching us,” says Bernie, 51. “There was a certain catharsis in remembering what Dad taught us. His spirit loomed very large.”
The Curry brothers raced in support of One in Five, a charity founded by close friends who lost a loved one to suicide.
“It’s based on the statistic that one in five Australians will suffer some form of mental illness,” Steve explains.
“For us, it was a very natural fit to be racing for them.”
Of course, sibling rivalry remains alive and well, with the pair working in the same industry and sometimes even having to fight for the same roles.
“I would’ve loved to have been in Wentworth,” Steve laughs.
“I wouldn’t say I was jealous of Bernie, but I would have grabbed at that chance with both hands.”
“And I would’ve loved to have been in The Castle,” Bernie admits.
“But I don’t know if I could have delivered the line ‘Dad, I dug a hole’ with quite the same nuance.”
