Charlie Sheen wasn’t about to open his books — or his medical chart.
The “Two and a Half Men” alum recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss his Netflix documentary, “aka Charlie Sheen.”
While the actor doesn’t flinch at questions about his decision to tell his story on camera, which he describes as a “love letter” to his father, Martin Sheen, he does get “annoyed” with the reporter when asked about his health.
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“I think my presence answers those questions,” he remarked to the outlet.
When asked about his finances, the actor shot back, “Would you ask me that question at a dinner party in front of my parents?”
“I’m fine,” he insisted.
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In 2015, the 60-year-old publicly revealed he is HIV-positive.
For Sheen, telling his story wasn’t about revisiting his scandals. It was about examining both the highs and lows of a life that has long fascinated the public.
“I have been approached a couple of times, but it never actually got to an in-person meeting,” the star said. “It was just a couple of phone calls, or I’d read a pitch breakdown for how somebody thought they should document my history, and none of that spoke to me at all.”
“I saw a guy that wasn’t interested in a lot of the [tabloid] c—,” he said, referring to director Andrew Renzi. “I saw a guy that wasn’t there to exploit anything, that was there to celebrate the cool s— and to be sensitive — but honest and thorough — with the not-so-cool s—.”
Sheen’s brother, Emilio Estevez, and their father declined to participate in the docuseries. Renzi brought a rough cut of “Part One” to both of them in hopes it would encourage them to change their minds. It didn’t.
“Dad had such a specific reaction to it,” Sheen said. “He said, ‘You don’t need me. You don’t need the me of today. You’ve got the really interesting, handsome me. That’s how I want to be in the doc.'”
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Previously, Sheen told Fox News Digital that he’s maintained his sobriety for nearly eight years — an achievement he said he’s proud of after decades of public battles with addiction.
“Dope and booze, at those levels, that’s a young person’s game,” said Sheen. “That’s not for us AARP types.”
“There really aren’t challenges with sobriety,” he said. “I’m not connected to the people of the past. If I were to go back to those choices to numb myself, get out of my head, or feel differently, I have so much evidence that it’s only going to make things worse and more complicated. I’d suddenly be steeped in shame. And with that comes deceit and manipulation. All that c— doesn’t fit in anymore.”
After high school, Sheen followed in his father’s footsteps and pursued a career in Hollywood. Following a small role in 1986’s “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Sheen quickly rose to superstardom.
During the 1980s and 1990s, he developed an appetite for drugs, alcohol and sex. He grew reliant on cocaine and turned to liquor to calm his stutter. At one point, Sheen recalled how he was cut off by the cartel because they suspected he was dealing.
In 2003, Sheen landed a starring role in the sitcom “Two and a Half Men.” The show made him the highest-paid male actor on television, reportedly earning him $1.8 million per episode during its eighth season, according to The Associated Press. Production was halted in 2011 when Sheen entered rehab for the third time. That season was eventually canceled, and Sheen’s contract was terminated.
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Sheen described being at the center of seven family interventions, countless affairs, legal battles and messy divorces. He finally got sober for good in December 2017.
“When I finally decided that I was going to make AA a place that I passed through and not wound up in, that’s when I felt like I was the captain of my own ship,” Sheen said. “That’s when I knew that I was going to make a promise to myself and honor it.”
Sheen said he couldn’t recall a moment when he realized that chasing extremes could kill him.
“I was never a guy that saw this stuff as life-threatening,” he explained. “If I did, I probably never would’ve done it. That’s the reason why I never did heroin, because I knew that I would do it once and die, or do it every day for the rest of my life until I died. There is that first intervention on my dad’s 50th birthday. That was a moment where I was actually grateful for that intervention.”
“And then later on, I was married to Denise [Richards]. The show was going great. We had a nice new house and a baby on the way. And then I just made the completely ill-advised decision to start taking pills because I could do them. Nobody can smell pills on your breath.”
“How stupid that was,” he chuckled to himself. “That turned into a thing.”
“I would get away for a minute, and then I’d pull it back. It was a constant back and forth of either coming out of detox or looking forward to the next dose. And if you’re constantly living between those two moments, then you’re never really in the present.”
In his book, Sheen described being consumed by what he called the “holy trinity” — mixing cocaine, cigarettes and porn.
“[Why?] First and foremost, because of how good it felt,” he said. “Anyone who’s struggled with addiction … a lot of them will tell you the same thing. I wouldn’t have done it at that level, in those combinations, if the majority of it didn’t feel awesome.”
Sheen still experiences what he calls “shame shivers” — sudden feelings of guilt over his past. He previously said he spent his 50s apologizing to those he hurt.
“What I tell myself is I can’t go back to that moment, regardless of the wreckage, and bring a simple item from it into the present,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean it should be completely forgotten. I keep a lot of that stuff close. … The shame shivers, they just come out of nowhere. But they’re spaced out these days a lot more than they used to be. I also think being honest with yourself takes the power out of those memories and those feelings. We’re all flawed.”
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“The hardest things in life that I’ve either accomplished or overcome, I’ve handled alone primarily. And so, I was going to apply that same tenacity, that same grit. And then I knew if I’d done it myself [get sober], then I had completely earned it. The stuff that we earned is the stuff that we truly own.”
