The Netflix documentary about Charlie Sheen’s adventurous life unfolded quite a lot about his antics, under-the-influence episodes, and his career in general. Even though he has worked in notable films like Platoon (1986) and Wall Street (1987), for a certain generation, he will always be remembered for the TV show Two and a Half Men. His co-star Jon Cryer, who played his brother on the show, talked about rubbing shoulders with Charlie on the set and how the two were very differently compensated for their work.
Recalling his days on the show, Cryer talked about how Sheen was busy renegotiating his contract with the producers and said, “He’s in the midst of falling apart in every way that I can imagine, and he’s renegotiating his contract for another year of a show that I’m supposed to be on too. The dictator of North Korea was a guy named Kim Jong-il. He acted crazy all the time and thus got enormous amounts of aid from countries who were so scared of him that they would shovel money at him. Well, that’s what happened here. The negotiations went off the charts because his life was falling apart. Me, whose life was pretty good at that time, I got a third of that.”
Cryer went on to reveal that Warner Bros, who produced the show, had pre-sold some of the seasons of the show. This facilitated them spending even more money on Sheen. This adds to the already long list of things Cryer has said about Sheen in the past and puts some light on the creators of the show as well. According to a report by Forbes in 2011, Sheen was making $1.9 million (Rs 16 crore) per episode. But when Sheen was replaced with Ashton Kutcher in 2013, THR reported that Cryer was earning $62ok (Rs 54 lakh) for an episode.
Sheen’s exit from the show was rushed because it was done in order to get rid of him. His refusal to attend rehab and the several episodes of showing up drunk or hurling abuses at creator Chuck Lorre all contributed to him getting fired. In the same documentary, the actor talked about why he never returned to the show and said, “I remember saying, ‘Dude, I dunno man. ‘I’m feeling emotionally done there.’ And I get there’s a tonne of money at stake, and I get there’s a lot more juice to be squeezed out of this thing, but I don’t know how much juice is left in me. And I do fear if I go back, it’s going to go terribly wrong.’ I said those words.”
The actor was, in fact, supposed to be out of the show earlier but had been convinced to stay by the former head of CBS, Les Moonves. Sheen wanted to leave, but a $2 million (Rs 17 cr) per episode contract got him to stay. Sheen called it a “recipe for disaster”, as the new contract and the whole bunch of money coincided with his relapse.
