Is Charlie Sheen Sober Now? What He’s Said About His Journey

Charlie Sheen has been a divisive figure in the media for the last two decades, and for good reason. Once the highest-paid comedic actor in all of primetime, thanks to his work on Two and a Half Men, he plummeted to career lows due to his strange behavior at the height of the sitcom’s popularity. And his experiences with alcoholism and addiction have been well documented throughout his career.

In the two-part Netflix documentary aka Charlie Sheen, premiering September 10, as well as in his memoir, The Book of Sheen, the actor reflects on his rapid ascent into Hollywood’s elite and his tumultuous descent. In a career plagued by sex scandals, arrests, and drug addiction, struggles that began at an early age, it seems that Sheen’s story is as much about survival as it is about self-destruction.

What caused Charlie Sheen to experience such tumult?

In his memoir, he details his first puff of marijuana at age 11 and his first arrest in high school for falling asleep in his car. “I told him a lie about the car breaking down, and me being too tired to push it to the side of the road. He didn’t care and demanded the standard documents. I opened the glove box to retrieve them,” he wrote. “Eyeing the travel bong, he sternly asked me, ‘Like to smoke a little pot, do we?’ To my credit, I flatly stated, ‘I do.’” What followed was a “quick trip to city hall in central Malibu.”

Sheen’s full descent into chaos began at 21 when he was cast in Oliver Stone‘s Platoon, a role that would define him. In his book, Sheen described the experience as “exposed and frantic,” as the movie was filmed in “perfect chronological order.” “As the characters in the story grew weary and emotionally shattered, the actors did as well,” said Sheen. “No one had showered the entire time or had any contact with the people they cared about the most.”

Orion Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

“Platoon would change everything for me. It picked a fight with fame. The likes of which would spend the next 30 years trying to kill me,” said Sheen about the experience. And how right he was.

In 2003, when Sheen landed the role of Charlie on Two and a Half Men, he quickly rose through Hollywood’s ranks to join its A-list. But with that success came all the pitfalls of fame: excess, scrutiny, and the personal demons that would soon overshadow his career. Overcome by drug addiction, his erratic behavior began affecting his work, causing friction with series creator Chuck Lorre, as well as his castmates. Due to his behavior, Sheen was very publicly fired from Men in 2011. To this day, Sheen regrets how he ended things on the show.

CBS / Courtesy: Everett Collection

“I regret that specifically still,” Charlie told People. “If I hadn’t done what I had, I could be living a different life right now. All my problems wouldn’t be what they are. But you just don’t know that.”

“I just don’t know what I was trying to prove,” Charlie told E! “I still haven’t cracked that nut. And to take it that far, to keep pushing the envelope and chasing whatever that next thing was? I don’t know.”

In 2015, Sheen publicly revealed that he was HIV positive. In an interview with Piers Morgan, the actor revealed that with his diagnosis came extortionists looking to exploit him. “The only couple of times I didn’t tell somebody was because the last 25 times I’d told somebody, they used it against me, and they used my medical condition for their own folly and financial gain.”

Netflix

Sheen continued: “And the amount of despicable charlatans that I thought were allies, that then turned against me, they were coming out of the woodwork, it was crazy.”

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“I had so much evidence by that point that there was really nothing left except a funeral or a wake or something awful,” said Sheen, recalling the sobering moment when he realized how close he was to death. “That’s the stuff I look back on. I’m just like, ‘Huh, that could have been pulled back a little bit.’”

After a chaotic life and the ongoing struggles that have defined him in the media for decades, Charlie Sheen is finally sober. Clean and alcohol-free for eight years, he is using his memoir and documentary to reclaim his story. “It’s not about me setting the record straight or righting all the wrongs of my past,” Sheen said to People. “I also didn’t want to write from the place of being a victim. I wasn’t, and I own everything I did. It’s just me, finally telling the stories in the way they actually happened.”

Sheen realized that as a father, he needed to be the kind of man his children could rely upon. Now a dad and granddad, Sheen says he barely misses his partying days.  “I miss the first hour of drinking. If I could only drink for one hour, maybe I would. But it’s the 15 hours after that first drink where things go wrong.”

He has said the most fascinating part of his sobriety is the apology process because it is a moment of forgiveness and reflection. “What has been interesting about making amends is that most people have been like, ‘Hey, yeah, we’re good man, but we hope you’ve also forgiven yourself.’ I have to remember that that’s also part of the process.”

aka Charlie Sheen, September 10, Netflix

If you or someone you know has addiction issues, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration‘s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.