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However, as both Cryer and Lorre knew, it would not be able to be cut short for either of them to kill themselves. Charlie Sheen would continue to buy into the show and, as Cryer said, “He was two years sober and on his A-game.”
Charlie Sheen’s stint on “Two and a Half Men” ended dramatically in March 2011 when he was suddenly fired following increasingly bizarre (and worrying) behavior. You’ll likely remember the actor’s “tiger blood” phase which made him a tabloid sensation and alienated him from his peers. Well, it wasn’t always like that. As co-star Jon Cryer told ET in 2022, when they first signed up for the series, Sheen was two years sober and on his A-game. His comedic timing was impeccable and, as Cryer recalled, “We got along great.”
However, things started to change following his 2005 divorce from Denise Richards. First, it was the little things. “He started to have issues with the writing,” Cryer said. Things got progressively worse from there as Sheen fell off the wagon and by 2010, his co-stars feared he was near rock bottom. “Charlie didn’t look so good as we started our eighth season,” Cryer wrote in his 2015 memoir. “Gaunt, pale, sallow, even sweaty occasionally.” He was sickly thin and exhibiting a “manic energy.”
As Cryer wrote, “His timing started to go off, too.” Slowly, he began forgetting his lines and even his physicality failed him. Cryer recalled a time when Sheen had to hold onto a couch to stay upright during rehearsal. The comedian’s colleagues felt helpless as they looked on and eventually, Cryer and show creator Chuck Lorre considered pulling the plug. “We said, ‘It’s not worth this show going on if going on enables Charlie Sheen to kill himself,'” Cryer told ET.
