Summary

  • Charlie Sheen reflects on his infamous feud with Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre, itting that he messed up and could have continued the show.
  • Sheen recalls the years of great memories and hard work on the sitcom, acknowledging the value of creating something that people truly enjoyed and were connected to.
  • Sheen and Lorre have reconciled and moved on, with Lorre praising Sheen's efforts to make up for their fallout and even making changes to accommodate him in his new show, Bookie.

Following the debut of the duo's new show, Charlie Sheen is getting candid about his former feud with Ashton Kutcher in a new role. Though leading FX's Anger Management for two seasons shortly afterward, Sheen would largely turn to focusing on himself, eventually reconciling with Lorre and starring in his Max comedy, Bookie.

With Bookie currently in the middle of season 1, Deadline caught up with Sheen for an in-depth interview about his career and his reunion with Lorre. The star got particularly candid about his falling out with the Two and a Half Men creator, lamenting the feud that became of his own actions and feeling that the sitcom could've lasted much longer "if I hadn't f---ed it up." See what Sheen explained below:

Yeah, if I hadn’t f---ed everything up, we could have done it as long as we wanted to. So they say, don’t live in regret, but you have to honor it. You have to learn from it. Well… Up? Yeah, there are a lot of great memories. Years of great memories, when we were cooking with gas, and we were delivering something that people were really invested in, really enjoying, and were really connected to. And we didn’t phone it in. I mean, we were working really hard on that show, in every aspect of the production, from the writers room to the crew, to the cast. Everybody. We knew what we had, and the value of taking the time to create it properly.

And I knew the rules, from day one. Well, when I say I knew the rules is just what was required of me to contribute to this workplace, what was expected of me. And so when I started butting up against those, the rules never changed. I would look at it from an athletic point of view. It’s like we practice all week and then Friday night was game night, and you got to play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back. And then, somewhere along the way, I decided that the rules no longer applied to me. And that was not fair to the system that was in place.

How Sheen & Lorre Have Made Up Since Two & A Half Men

In the decade-plus since his dismissal from Two and a Half Men and the end of Anger Management, Sheen has taken slow, but deliberate, efforts to better himself. The actor consistently attended rehabilitation programs in the hopes of moving on from his drug and alcohol abuse issues, while also managing his other health concerns. He's also publicly expressed some of his regrets for his past actions, including what led to his dismissal from the CBS sitcom.

More recently, Lorre has been one of Sheen's champions in the public eye, praising the actor's efforts to make up for their infamous fallout. In particular, the Golden Globe winner crafted a role for Sheen in Bookie, praising his Two and a Half Men star's ability to not only roll with some of the punches of the self-aware script, but also his ability to quickly pick back up Lorre's particular style of comedy. Lorre even made changes to the character at Sheen's request, avoiding painting him as a recovering addict in the hopes of leaving that image of him behind:

I wasn’t seeking to do damage to the man. I wanted to hopefully take people’s perceptions and make it comedic, not dark.

With the duo now having moved on and reconciled, questions have swirled about the possibility of a Two and a Half Men revival with both Sheen and original co-star Jon Cryer back in tow. Though Lorre has indicated that he wants to focus on crafting new projects, he's also acknowledged that "it's foolish to say never", and praised the healing he and Sheen felt while working on Bookie. With Sheen also expressing interest in a sitcom of some kind, and such revivals as The Conners, Frasier and Night Court proving to be successes for their respective networks, it will be interesting to see if this newfound positivity can create some groundswell for a return of the Harper family on screen.

Source: Deadline

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Two and a Half Men
TV-14
Comedy
30
6.3/10
Release Date
2003 - 2015-00-00
Network
CBS
Showrunner
Chuck Lorre

Cast

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WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming
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Two and a Half Men follows the Harper family: Charlie (Charlie Sheen), a womanizing, hedonistic jingle writer who enjoys his lazy lifestyle from the comfort of his large beach house; Alan (Jon Cryer), Charlie's neurotic, far less successful brother; and Jake (Angus T. Jones), Alan's impressionable son. When Alan's marriage falls apart, he moves in with Charlie, much to the older brother's dismay. After bonding with his nephew, Charlie reluctantly embraces Alan's presence, paving the way for one of television's most dysfunctional family environments.

Directors
James Widdoes
Writers
Chuck Lorre, Jim Patterson, Eddie Gorodetsky, Lee Aronsohn
Seasons
12