Jon Cryer, who played Charlie Sheen‘s on-screen brother in Two and a Half Men, recently revealed that he got only a fraction of Sheen’s pay, pointing out the major discrepancy in the pay grade.
Jon Cryer says he earned ‘a third’ of Charlie Sheen’s salary on Two and a Half Men’
Just before his infamous public firing and struggle with substance abuse, Charlie Sheen secured a huge pay bump, taking his salary to a whopping $1.9 million for each 22-minute episode (via Forbes). At the time, Sheen was also reportedly struggling with his personal life and addiction. Cryer recalled the time in Netflix’s new documentary, aka Charlie Sheen.
“He’s in the midst of falling apart in every way I can imagine,” Cryer said in the documentary (via E!), “And he’s renegotiating his contract for another year of a show that I’m supposed to be on too.” Cryer even compared Sheen to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who received foreign aid amidst political tension with other countries.
Sheen’s behavior allegedly turned even more erratic after his rehab stint, and Cryer believes that this was one of the reasons why he got such a huge pay bump. “Well, that’s what happened here,” Cryer said. “His negotiations went off the charts because his life was falling apart. Me, whose life was pretty good at that time, I got a third of that.”
The show went on from 2003 to 2015 and got cancelled after the 12th season. Throughout its run, the series remained popular among viewers and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the chemistry between the lead actors and humor, among other things.
