More than a decade after their highly public falling out, Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre are friends again and teaming up for a new show on HBO’s streaming platform, MAX.
Talking with Variety about their upcoming series, Bookie, Lorre, 71, said while he and co-creator Nick Bakay were in development on the show, he could not stop thinking he had the perfect — but slightly complicated — person in mind for one role.
The show, which follows stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco starring as a sports bookie in Los Angeles, had one role that he knew would be perfect for Sheen, 58, — the star of one of his most successful shows, Two and a Half Men, and his former friend.
The idea, however, was a little more complicated than just calling Sheen up. In 2011, the actor publicly called his former boss a “little maggot,” a “stupid, stupid man” and used vaguely antisemitic language when addressing Lorre, who is Jewish.
Following his rants about Lorre and the show in general, Sheen was kicked off and replaced by That ’70s Show star Ashton Kutcher.
Despite the way that their friendship ended, Lorre told Variety he couldn’t help but circle back to Sheen for one role in his new series.
“It should be Charlie,” he told Variety of his thought process. “I remember Charlie was very much engaged in, in sports betting and he would tell me stories about it all the time. You know, when things were good.”
Bakay, 64, said that while he was surprised by Lorre’s idea, he completely understood where his co-creator’s mind was at.
“It was a thunderbolt,” Bakay said. “You know when you’re onto something good because it scared me. But also, I know Chuck well enough to know all that this meant. I knew everything that was below the waterline of that iceberg. And I knew there was a part of him that was ready to do something to turn that page on a more significant level.”
Lorre said it took a lot of time and healing to come around to reaching out for the role but that he believed he had gotten to a place where their disagreements were “old news.” He ultimately talked with Sheen’s representation who put the two in contact and the process began.
“I was nervous, but almost as soon as we started talking, I remembered, we were friends once,” Lorre said.
It’s not totally surprising, he said, as they worked together successfully for eight seasons — a whopping 170 episodes — on Two and a Half Men.
“I loved working with Charlie on Two and a Half Men. We did 170 episodes together before it all fell apart. And more often than not, we had a good time,” Lorre extemporized.
The comedy writer and creator of The Big Bang Theory said it may have taken them 12 years, but they finally found their way back.
“And that friendship just suddenly seemed to be there again. I don’t want to be too mawkish about it, but it was healing,” he said. “And he [Sheen] was also totally game to make fun of himself. When he came to the table read of that episode, I walked up, and we hugged. It was just great.”
Lorre and Bakay said for the role, Sheen had to be very comfortable with them poking fun at his colorful past, including his Two and a Half Men exit.
According to the co-creators, in one scene, Maniscalco’s character calls Sheen a “f**kwad” and says that Sheen’s co-star Jon Cryer was the real star of their hit sitcom.
“That really falls on Charlie being a really good sport,” Lorre said. “He’s playing a version of himself that has shadows of past problems and he was fine with it.”
The pair did end up editing out a version of the original script which saw Sheen living at a rehab facility — a request from the actor who has long fought with drug and alcohol addiction — but said Sheen was game for everything else.
In the end, Sheen’s heightened version of himself hosts a poker game at a rehab facility, simply because he knows others there. It was a small but meaningful adjustment that Lorre was happy to make, he said.
“It’s a rehab that he knows, but he’s not there to dry out from drugs and alcohol — he’s just running a poker game,” Lorre explained. “And that solved that. I wasn’t seeking to do damage to the man. I wanted to hopefully take people’s perceptions and make it comedic, not dark.”
Bakay added that while he initially viewed Sheen as a “wild card” element, he believes the reunification of Sheen and Lorre is a great thing for their show which comes to streaming later this month.
“Charlie was nothing but gold for us. I think this was great for Charlie and Chuck on a hundred levels. But first and foremost, he was a huge asset for the show,” Bakay said.
“Look, there’s an exploitive level to it, which is, it’s kind of fantastic for our first episode,” Bakay joked. “But there’s a bigger part of it, and this is what really is my takeaway throughout all of it: Through all the carnage, these guys made beautiful music together. And Charlie’s really good. There was that realization of like, Yeah, this is one of the best comedy actors. And it was like watching a guy in batting practice grooving balls over the fences again.”
Due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, Sheen could not talk about his role in the show or his reconciliation with Lorre for the project.
Bookie premieres on MAX on Nov. 30.
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