Seemingly born to be a movie star, Charlie Sheen is the son of the legendry actor Martin Sheen and his brother is Emilio Estevez. With that in mind, it makes all the sense in the world that Charlie has enjoyed one of the most successful acting careers in Hollywood history. Of course, all good things must come to an end and in the case of Charlie Sheen, his career changed forever in the year 2011.
Arguably at the height of his career during the year 2010, Charlie Sheen was the star of the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men and he was making a fortune for his role in the show. However, behind the scenes, things were falling apart for Sheen in a lot of ways. For example, Sheen had been in a pretty vicious feud with Two and a Half Men’s showrunner Chuck Lorre for many years.
At the height of Charlie Sheen’s feud with Chuck Lorre, the actor was publicly fired from his starring Two and a Half Men role. After agreeing to an interview about his firing, Sheen infamously spoke about how he was “winning” and said several other incredible things. While many people remember some of Sheen’s comments during that interview, it seems like the masses have forgotten about a lot of the things that went on with Charlie at that time.
Things Start To Go Awry
Long before Charlie Sheen became a TV star, he was already starting to make some very dubious decisions, to say the very least. For example, in the year 1990, Sheen had a weapon in his pants and when his then-fiancée Kelly Preston picked up his clothes, she was shot in the wrist. At least, that is what Sheen says happened that night as at the time, it was reported that Charlie accidentally shot Preston himself. Either way, Preston unsurprisingly called off their engagement soon thereafter.
Unfortunately for Charlie Sheen, during the ‘90s he would continue to find himself in the headlines, often for negative reasons. For example, in 1995 Charlie was all over the tabloids as it came out that he had been a regular customer of a brothel service that was run by the Hollywood madam, Heidi Fleiss.
Sadly, during the late-‘90s it quickly became clear that Charlie Sheen had extremely serious addiction issues as he suffered a stroke due to a 1998 overdose. Worse yet, in 1997 Sheen was arrested for assault and he was sentenced to two years of probation after he pleads guilty to charges related to abusing his girlfriend at the time.
From the year 2003 until 2011, Charlie Sheen was one of the biggest TV stars in the world. However, during that same time period, Sheen’s life continued to fall apart in virtually every other way. For example, in 2006 it came out that Sheen and his then-wife Denise Richards were getting divorced and she would later say that Charlie was physically and verbally abusive.
Losing And Winning
By the late-2000s, Charlie Sheen’s addictions seemed to be taking over his life. Remarkably enough, however, Sheen’s Two and a Half Men bosses initially tried to get him treatment. However, just like a lot of addicts, when Sheen was offered help he lashed out by calling Chuck Lorre a “stupid little man” among other things and that led to Charlie losing his job.
After Charlie Sheen lost his Two and a Half Men gig, he took part in one of the most memorable interviews in Hollywood history. During the roughly 5-minute interview, Sheen was asked about the perception that he might be bi-polar and he responded by saying that he is “bi-winning”. Later in the same interview, Sheen spoke about his famous friends calling him and then exclaimed “winning”, evidently in an attempt to explain how his pals made him feel.
In addition to Sheen’s memorable “winning” quotes, he said several other things during the interview that stunned viewers. For example, he claimed to have “one speed, one gear, go”, referred to himself as having “tiger blood”, and said “dying’s for fools” when asked about the dangers of his addictions. Additionally, Sheen claimed to have completely beaten his issues at that time saying he would never relapse because he “blinked and cured (his) brain”. Then, a moment later Sheen was asked about his love of partying and in response, he asked “What’s not to love?” before bragging about his antics.
The Aftermath
Given the extreme nature of Charlie Sheen’s “winning interview”, it makes sense that the world reacted to it in a pretty extreme way. For example, someone saw an opportunity in the millions of people who embraced some of Charlie’s more remarkable comments during that interview. In an attempt to take advantage of the situation, Sheen traveled around North America and staged his My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not An Option tour. Unsurprisingly, the tour was a disaster, and Sheen was booed off stage during at least one of his so-called performances.
Several years after the “winning” interview, Charlie Sheen blamed his behavior during that era on “too much testosterone cream” which he claimed caused something akin to “roid rage”. Unsurprisingly, some observers found that explanation hard to believe. That said, anyone in the media at the time who was attempting to diagnose Sheen from afar was being pretty irresponsible. After all, for someone to responsibly diagnose Sheen’s mental state at that time, they would need medical expertise and the ability to interact with Charlie.