Life Lessons
Charlie Sheen Is a Redemption in Process
Each of us is better than the worst thing we have ever done.
The fall of 2010 was not a good time for the cast of Two and a Half Men.
Some days, filming went smoothly. Other days, the show’s star, Charlie Sheen, arrived late, disheveled, forgetting lines, smelling of alcohol.¹ He was pale and dangerously thin. During one scene, he asked directors if he could lean on the couch rather than walk around during his part. Making matters worse, all of the awkward starts, stops, and redos happened in front of a live audience.
The show’s meteoric ratings made the situation all the more unfortunate. Teams scrambled to prop Charlie up and get through each shoot. In January of 2011, production was halted after Charlie was hospitalized following a 36-hour cocaine-fueled bender. Things came to a head with Sheen’s termination in March of that year. His $1.8-million-per-episode job vanished in the turn of a page.
The downward spiral that followed was one of the most public meltdowns in modern history. But his last chapter is proving an ongoing process of redemption.
