Excerpts run in THR, reveal details of Sheen’s CBS departure

Mar 19, 2015 13:20 GMT  ·  By
Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen on the now-defunct "Two and a Half Men" from CBS / Warner Bros.
   Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen on the now-defunct "Two and a Half Men" from CBS / Warner Bros.

2010 was a very eventful year for Charlie Sheen, which would help him go down in history as the celebrity with the biggest, most mediated and scandalous public meltdown in modern Hollywood. That was also the year when Sheen’s addiction nearly killed him and he alienated every friend he made on the set of CBS’ sitcom “Two and a Half Men.”

The revelation comes via former co-star Jon Cryer, who has included an inside account of the meltdown and the events that preceded it into his upcoming memoir, “So That Happened,” out in stores in April. Excerpts from it are published in the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter.

Cryer finally gets his side of the story out

In 2010, after a series of violent outbursts and arrests, drunken and drug binges, Charlie Sheen was fired from the show because he continued to refuse to go to rehab for what was obviously a problem that was endangering his life.

However, that wasn’t before he was given raise after raise, which made him the highest paid actor on TV for that moment, and he became the hottest celebrity around. In Cryer’s words, “Men” made Sheen think that he was more than just a man who just happened to have a huge paycheck.

After he was fired, Sheen went off the rails completely, with countless interviews and stage appearances offering only an insight into his troubled mind. The scandal was fueled by the media as much as it was by Sheen, and people on the Internet became divided in their reaction to what was happening: some thought he was some kind of rebellious genius, while others only saw a man in desperate need for psychiatric help.

Even when he was directly attacked, whether by Sheen himself or his supporters, Cryer maintained a level of professionalism Sheen could only hope to achieve one day. He will finally be getting to have his say with “So That Happened,” but don’t expect it to be the kind of shameless tell-all that capitalizes on another’s downfall and / or is meant to make himself look good.

From the excerpts available over at THR and at the end of the text, it becomes clear that this is just Cryer’s attempt at having his side of the story out there, and he tells it all with humor and a touch of sarcasm, but mostly with disappointment.

As much as Sheen might have hurt him, Cryer still comes across like a good guy because he feels sorry that Sheen (nearly) tossed all his hard work down the drain by refusing to get help. He is still indignant that the world would rush to capitalize on what was possibly Sheen’s lowest moment, not even stopping to consider that he could have killed himself.

The full half of the glass

However, it’s not all gloom with Cryer: in the same excerpts made public, he talks about Charlie and how he “helped” him get over a bad divorce by hooking him up with girls, the kind you pay to go out with, and he praises his former co-star for being a brilliant comedian when “really focused.”

To this day, Cryer is amused by how Sheen’s bad behavior was rewarded for at least a couple of years, to the point where he had triple Cryer’s salary even though he’d been arrested, drove off a cliff, been accused of assault twice and was clearly on the verge of a meltdown.

Despite how this might sound, it doesn’t appear that Cryer is holding a grudge against his former pal and co-star. If anything, he seems filled with regret that he didn’t help more, that he didn’t pay more attention to the signs, that he didn’t get more involved.

So That Happened Samples