How Clint Eastwood Transformed Charlie Sheen’s Life

Charlie Sheen revealed he was blindsided by an intense Hollywood-stacked intervention that sent him to rehab for the first time back in 1990 — and it even involved Clint Eastwood.

In Wednesday’s release of his new Netflix docuseries aka Charlie Sheen, the Two and a Half Men alum, 60, recalled how he was duped into thinking he was attending his father Martin Sheen’s birthday party on August 3, 1990 — only to find himself walking into a carefully staged meeting meant to push him toward sobriety.

‘As I come around the corner, I see the living room has this really expertly organized circle of people,’ Charlie said. 

Among those in the circle was what Sheen described as a ‘weird mix’ — Rob Lowe, his seventh-grade history teacher, his yoga instructor, plus his siblings Ramon, Emilio and Renée, all gathered with their parents. 

Eastwood, 95, wasn’t in the room that day, but he still played a crucial role. 

The Oscar-winning legend phoned in during the tense meeting, right as Charlie was ‘hatch[ing] a plan to get away.’

That’s when Martin stopped him cold with the words: ‘There’s someone on the phone who wants to talk to you.’

In his ‘very recognizable, very globally familiar voice,’ Eastwood told his The Rookie co-star that he was ‘worth saving.’

The legendary director also urged him, ‘You’ve got to get the train back on the tracks, kid.’

‘It was really powerful,’ Charlie remembered. ‘I thanked him, gave the phone back to Dad and said, “All right, let’s go.”‘

‘aka Charlie Sheen’ dropped just days after the release of his memoir The Book of Sheen, which hit shelves Tuesday. 

In its pages, Charlie confessed he was ‘sloppy’ on set while working with Eastwood on The Rookie — a consequence of late nights partying with Nicolas Cage and a crew of friends.

The premiere comes after Sheen said he’s grateful that his former Two and a Half Men costar Jon Cryer agreed to appear in the Netflix documentary. 

The actor looks back on his turbulent past in the two-part special, which covers everything from his rise in Hollywood to the infamous 2011 drug-fueled meltdown that got him fired from the hit CBS sitcom and replaced by Ashton Kutcher.

The fallout at the time drove a major wedge between Sheen, Cryer, and show creator Chuck Lorre — leaving Cryer and Lorre to pick up the pieces as the show was thrown into chaos.  

Though Sheen and Lorre have since patched things up, things with Cryer remain distant — with the actor telling Bill Maher’s podcast in January that he has ‘no relationship’ with Sheen.  

Still, the actor took part in the doc and offered his perspective on the collapse of Two and a Half Men.

In a new interview, Sheen, who has been sober for eight years, admitted he understands why Cryer would still feel upset, given how his past addictions blew up their hit show.

‘It was really cool to hear from his perspective,’ Sheen told People. ‘He was in the line of fire with all that stupid s— going on, and it was affecting him and his family and his career and all that. I can’t debate anything that he said.’ 

Sheen added that Cryer’s words were thoughtful, and he even reached out to thank him — but has yet to hear back.

‘I’m thinking I wrote to the wrong number. It’s not like Jon to not respond. He’s super responsible like that,’ Sheen said. 

‘So if you’re reading this, Jon, DM me your new number!’

During the January episode of his Club Random podcast, Maher asked Cryer point-blank, ‘What’s your relationship with Charlie now?’

Cryer replied, ‘I don’t know. We don’t have a relationship anymore.’

He went on to note that Sheen and Lorre have since reconciled, with Sheen even making guest appearances on Lorre’s Max comedy Bookie.

Sheen and Lorre hadn’t spoken in over a decade after the falling out, which began in 2011 after Sheen called Lorre ‘stupid’ and ‘little maggot’ in a series of well-publicized tirades. 

As for Lorre, he previously gushed about reuniting with his old pal for the show Bookie.

‘I don’t want to be too mawkish about it, but it was healing,’ Lorre said in 2024.

‘I was nervous, but almost as soon as we started talking, I remembered, we were friends once,’ the writer/director explained. ‘And that friendship just suddenly seemed to be there again.’

Lorre said he got to a place where their feud is now considered ‘old news’.

‘I loved working with Charlie on ‘Two and a Half Men’, Lorre added. ‘We did 170 episodes together before it all fell apart.’

In 2021, Sheen admitted that there were ’55 different’ and better ways to have handled his firing from the hit CBS sitcom that did not include calling Lorre names like a ‘turd’ or ‘clown.’ 

‘I think the growth for me post-meltdown or melt forward or melt somewhere — however you want to label it — it has to start with absolute ownership of my role in all of it,’ he told Yahoo! News. ‘And it was desperately juvenile.’   

In 2018, Sheen took responsibility over their dramatic falling out and expressed a desire to repair their relationship during an interview with Today Show.

At the time, the father-of-five ‘really’ wanted ‘to mend’ things with Lorre. 

‘He lives close by, I could easily go by and just drop a note under his door with my phone number, which I should, and I will.’ 

Speaking about a possible reboot of the comedy series that made him the highest paid actor on American TV, he said he was open to the idea, ‘it would be so cool to reboot it.’ 

Lorre previously admitted that ‘there were a couple of years’ where he ‘couldn’t watch’ Two and a Half Men because it ‘was too hurtful.’