Charlie Sheen doesn't seem like the kind of person who would back away from a fight or try to make amends to anyone. And his relationship with Chuck Lorre, who famously earned his ire after CBS fired him from Two and a Half Men, has been among his most turbulent to date.
Yet over a decade after the scandal that erupted between the two men after Charlie Sheen was fired from the show, which culminated in a (now settled) $100 million lawsuit against Chuck Lorre for contract interference, Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre appear to have buried the hatched.
They are now working on a new comedy together and the bad blood between them seems to have been finally spent.
By the time he became involved with Two and a Half Men, Chuck Lorre had already earned the title of king of sitcoms. The show was on air for 12 seasons and Charlie Sheen was one of the mainstays of the show for eight of them.
However, things took a turn for the worse and Charlie Sheen found himself in Chuck Lorre's bad books during the eighth season. This happened as the star became involved in a series of questionable, disturbing, and controversial situations, including getting arrested in December 2009 after a fight with Brooke Mueller, his wife at the time.
It was CBS, the network airing Two and a Half Men, that handed Charlie Sheen his 11-page termination letter, but the actor held Chuck Lorre, as the producer of the show, directly liable for getting him fired and became livid.
I violently hate [Chuck Lorre]," Sheen told TMZ in 2012. "He's a stupid, stupid little man, and I'd never want to be like... That's me being polite," he continued, not hiding his vitriol.
While the show continued for another four years before CBS decided to move away from it, Charlie Sheen never returned to it. His feud with Chuck Lorre, however, continued.
Nevertheless, when the feud finally ended, Charlie Sheen spoke about how things could have been different.
"There was 55 different ways for me to handle that situation, and I chose number 56. And so, you know, 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 said.
"And it was desperately juvenile."
However, as early as 2015, Chuck Lorre voiced his regrets for the way his working relationship with Charlie Sheen had ended. Unlike the more hot-headed star, Chuck Lorre was saddened by the fact that he had fired Charlie Sheen and the circumstances under which it happened.
"How can I not wish that things had changed and turned out differently with Charlie? It broke my heart. Horrible ending to what was an incredible run with that show," he said.
His feelings were similar to those of fellow Two and a Half Men producer, Jon Cryer, who also told ET in 2022 that he shared Chuck Lorre's misgivings about how Charlie Sheen's time on the show ended. Moreover, the producer also discussed how worried they were about Charlie Sheen's life following the termination.
"It's not worth this show going on, if going on enables Charlie Sheen to [harm] himself.
When ET asked Charlie Sheen what sort of project would convince him to return to acting, he explained it would be a special project that only involved people who respect him.
"It would have to be something original, something with people that would respect me, and like me, and treat me like I deserve to be treated," he said, describing his ideal project and hinting that he was not going to let anyone treat him like he had been treated in the past.
Chuck Lorre's regrets and Charlie Sheen's newfound sobriety have enabled the two men to look at working together again.
Their new project is a comedy, How To Be A Bookie. In the show, Charlie Sheen plays a veteran bookie who is struggling after sports gambling becomes legalized. While many people were shocked by the collaboration, Charlie Sheen told ET in 2018 that it was only a "matter of time" before he returned to acting because there was great interest in it.
It appears that the huge scandal and fallout between Chuck Lorre and Charlie Sheen did teach the two men an important lesson about forgiveness and being able to put things behind them.
The fact that they are now working together again is great news for the fans who are likely to be treated to Charlie Sheen's acting talent and Chuck Lorre's awesome storytelling more in the future.
