Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer talk about "Two and a Half Men"
Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer might not look or act anything like each other on or off the screen, but they are so good at playing brothers on “Two and a Half Men” that the show is the number one comedy on television.
The two actors joined their co-stars last week for a very funny evening of conversation at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences theater in North Hollywood. I gabbed with both men before the program began.
Charlie, who plays a free-wheeling bachelor on the show with the same first name as Sheen, has found even more success as a sitcom star than he had in films when he had the leads in such 1980s classics as “Platoon” and “Wall Street.”
After a writers strike that halted production of “Men” for more than three months, Charlie said the cast is happy to be able to resume shooting the fifth season of the series which airs on Monday nights.
“There was an eagerness, there was an excitement to be back,” he said. “I think everyone has done enough of the things they need to do to their homes and their guest houses. We all got back and a couple days into it and we were fine. We didn’t miss a step.”
But when you’re Charlie Sheen, it’s not always a television show or a movie that keeps you in the public eye. He has been very public in his opposition to ex-wife Denise Richards allowing their two young daughters to appear in an E! reality show that she is starring in.
“I think we should all just boycott the damned thing,” he said. “You don’t go to court and make a stand to prevent that if you don’t firmly believe in it. It’s just a situation where, you know, the world is upside down sometimes.”
Cryer, however, has not served as cat nip for the tabloids. He was recently married and all is calm on that front. But the same cannot be said of his television alter-ego, Alan. The poor guy has endured a series of humiliating experiences after getting divorced from his wife and moving into the fictional Charlie’s beach house with his young son Jake (Angus T. Jones).
“Invariably, I’m almost naked when these humiliating things happen to me so they have to cover you with this greasy make-up and it just itches like nobody’s business,” he said. “So the best thing is that post-show shower.”
Cryer would be happy for a nice, long run provided the quality remains high.
“I think everyone wants to end it if we’re out of gas,” he said. “But I don’t feel like we’re there yet. I love the character, there’s a lot of Alan in me - unfortunately (laughs). I think there’s a lot more in him. I think we’ve got years of Alan left.”
“Men” has already been renewed by CBS for a sixth season and was an instant smash in syndication. Jon credits the show’s timelessness.
“The writers really made an effort since day one to write a show that was not dated and was much more about character comedy,” he said. “It was our hope to do something that would last for some time and it sure seems like it’s working.”
Greg Hernandez has covered the entertainment industry for the Daily
News since 2001. He's considered a bit odd by some for his obsession
with box office numbers, has been known to camp out near the kitchen
at premieres for first crack at the hors d'oeurves, and Greg's never
seen a red carpet he didn't want to stroll down.