They used to call Charlie Sheen “one-take Charlie” because the actor had this gift of nailing the scene on his first take, which you can probably imagine is a dream for anybody who works long hours on a television show or film behind-the scene.
But a blow-up on the set of “Two and a Half Men” railroaded his career and mostly made him uninsurable.
Now, Charlie Sheen has seen the light and got sober for a very noble reason.
Becoming famous and then using drugs seems like just about every actor’s modus operandi. Some get clean; some don’t. Some tragically die of a drug overdose like Chris Farley, River Phoenix and John Belushi are amongst the most notable actors.
Other times, however, actors fight off the addiction demons and get clean. Brad Pitt is a really good example of this. Several years ago, after an alleged physical altercation with his eldest adopted son and Angelina Jolie on a private jet, Pitt decided he had enough of hitting the bottle.
He’s been sober for over a year and a half now, but at one point Pitt claims he was drinking two 750ml bottles of whiskey per day. It’s not only amazing he’s still alive after that kind of alcohol abuse, it’s also amazing he still looks the way he does.
There are others though you might think there is no way they will ever stop their drug abuse.
That person is undeniably actor Charlie Sheen. The “Wall Street” actor was notorious for his reckless lifestyle for not just years, but decades.
However, Sheen claims he’s given it all up.
The 54-year-old star revealed on “Jay Leno’s Garage” show that “about a year and a half ago, it just hit me that I knew it was time to make a change — and you know, it didn’t require some crazy rehab stint or a shootout with the cops. It didn’t require anything super-dramatic and crazy and front-page news.”
Usually it does take something ultra serious to see the light. Sometimes it’s a car wreck or a trip to the hospital, but ultimately it takes something severe to open their eyes.
It didn’t happen with Robert Downey Jr. though who claimed he stopped using drugs altogether one day when he was eating a gross hamburger from Burger King.
Same with Sheen.
He added, “I couldn’t get my daughter to an appointment that she had. I don’t drink and drive ever, I have never had a DUI. I was like, ‘Wow, I am not even responsible enough to be available for my children’s needs.’ The next morning I woke up and was like, ‘Today is the day.’”
That’s about as noble as it gets. Your children should come first in every scenario that involves bad habits.
Also, it was refreshing to hear that he’s never gotten a DUI before. That seems like one of those things with Sheen that was inevitable. That’s harsh to say but when you take into account his wild behavioral past, it’s one of those things that wouldn’t shock you if it actually occurred, especially when you consider that he once denounced sobriety as “boring.”
But it looks like Sheen is here to stay and sometimes it doesn’t take a tragic occurrence to realize you need to change.