Posted in: CBS, Max, TV | Tagged: Angus T. Jones, Bookie, charlie sheen, chuck lorre, jon cryer, max, Two and a Half Me

Charlie Sheen Talks Two and a Half Men, Bookie, Chuck Lorre Reunion

Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen reflects on his career, fallout from his meltdown, and reuniting with Chuck Lorre for Max's Bookie.

Charlie Sheen is well aware of the reputation he's built over the years as a bad boy in the 80s, achieving superstardom in films and late into his career on the CBS megahit Two and a Half Men, but realized how much he's hit a snag from his epic meltdown against creator Chuck Lorre that led to his ouster from the sitcom he co-starred with Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones across eight seasons and 178 episodes. Despite a prolific film career, Sheen would save face in his return to TV in FX's Anger Management which lasted two seasons across 100 episodes. While the actor's slowed down considerably, he's made amends with Lorre now appearing on his Max series he co-created with Nick Bakay in Bookie, reuniting with Jones on the series in a poker scene with all the original actors returning from the CBS sitcom pilot. It's hard to dismiss just how long they worked together, including Sheen appearing in Lorre's The Big Bang Theory. The actor opened up about his reunion with Lorre on Bookie, where Cryer was, looking back at his legacy on TAAHM and regrets.

Charlie Sheen Moving Past His 'Two and a Half Men' Meltdown for Chuck Lorre's 'Bookie'

When asked about Lorre's offer for the Max series starring Sebastian Maniscalco, "Yeah. I mean, save for asking Chuck to not have me actually in rehab as a patient. I felt like that would be looking back, and he totally agreed," Sheen told Deadline Hollywood. "And then he came up with, well, let's create a mislead. You're still going to a rehab, but you're not a client; but membership has its privileges because you're allowed to use the room for the game. I actually pitched the card game, and then he turned it into an homage to the 'Two And a Half Men' card game in that pilot episode, with Angus there and all. And it happened almost 20 years to the day we shot that."

When asked about Cryer, "It was all a cosmic trip; Jon's there in spirit, and he's mentioned," Sheen said. He also didn't mince words about the squandered potential he could have on Two and a Half Men. "Yeah, if I hadn't fucked 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…" Ashton Kutcher was cast as the original character Walden Schmidt in the sitcom's final seasons. "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," he continued. "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 broke down his mindset at the time. "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."

As far as Sheen's personal life and how it affected his final seasons on the series, "There was a couple of times when I did pull myself out of it. I went and sought help and got better and came back and then … yeah, I don't know why I was unable to maintain that," he said. "And anytime external elements contaminate the main thing, I would look for someone to blame. And that's not fair. It's not fair to Chuck. It's not fair to the show. I went through two divorces, had four kids during that show. There was a lot of sh*t in my personal life that was a little bit distracting. But you got to leave that stuff at the doorstep of the stage door, right? That's hard, but you got to park it. It is hard. It is hard. But yeah, there was a moment when I was in rehab, and I guess we'd finished Season 7, or we were trying to finish Season 7, and we got the call for the renegotiation. And I was on the phone with my manager, and I think one of the agents. And I said, I don't know, man. I feel like we might've reached our limit here. And I'm hearing no, no, no, man, there's so many more stories to tell. Translation: money to be made for them."

For more, including Sheen talking about his Two and a Half Men beginnings, salary and what it meant to the show, how he transitioned from films to sitcoms, Matthew Perry, his biggest films, Bookie, and more, you can check out the interview here. The final two episodes of Bookie season one premiere Thursday on Max.

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