Charlie Sheen knows he screwed up a good thing. Sheen starred in CBS’ immensely popular sitcomTwo and a Half Menfor eight seasons before the actor’s erratic behavior got him fired. One of the factors that led to Sheen’s dismissal was when he publicly degraded the series’ co-creator, Chuck Lorre, while doing a radio interview onThe Alex Jones Showback in 2011. And today, Sheen realizes what a monumental mistake he made. Sheen said in an exclusive interview withDeadline:
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.
Sheen’s character, Charlie Harper, was killed off of the show, and Ashton Kutcher was hired to fill in the void at the beginning of the ninth season. Kutcher portrayed Alan’s (Jon Cryer) friend, Walden Schmidt, and the comedy limped along for four more seasons. Unfortunately,Two and a Half Mencould never recapture its magic, which resulted, in large part, thanks to Cryer and Sheen’s on-screen chemistry.
Related:Two and a Half Men: Did Ashton Kutcher Kill the Show?
Charlie Sheen Breaks the Rules
Two and a Half Men
Charlie Sheenportrayed Charlie Harper onTwo and a Half Menfor the show’s first eight seasons. And if it seemed that the role was tailor-made for Sheen, that’s because Harper was loosely based on the A-list actor. DespiteSheen and co-creator Chuck Lorre’s very public fallout, the actor has very fond memories of his time working on the CBS sitcom before he started breaking all the rules. Sheen said in the same interview:
“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.”
Sheen continued:
“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.”
Today, Sheen and Lorre have gotten over all their hurt feelings, andthe two creatives are working together again. Sheen appears in Lorre’s latest endeavor, the Max original seriesBookie. And fans can stream and binge-watch all 12 seasons ofTwo and a Half Menon Peacock, at the time of this writing.
