Charlie Sheen’s consequence-free life
In my lifetime I have known my share of Charlie Sheens sons of wealthy influential men who could buy their children anything and out of multiple problems One was a classmate of mine from school a clown with a mean streak and a talent for causing trouble and avoiding detention Maybe that had something to do with his father being a prominent Chicago politician Another was a guy I came to know in adulthood His love of partying led to him losing his license and his job because of multiple DUI charges His dad responded by giving him tens of thousands of dollars to co-produce a neighborhood music festival Meanwhile his live-in girlfriend at the time had to pay all their bills The version of Sheen defending his life in the two-part documentary is calm even as he peppers his recollections with profanity We d expect nothing less from a teen heartthrob whose movie dominance came to a screeching halt by the end of the s when he nearly died from an overdose The star of aka Charlie Sheen opens his self-effacing confessional with an anecdote that reminded me of these two and others recalling a time in the mid- s when a French pilot allowed him to steer a full commercial aircraft while he was blind drunk Sheen describes this in transcendent terms until the moment he realized he was endangering the lives of hundreds of people at which point he returned to his seat owning this experience The film s director Andrew Renzi asks him the question to which we can all guess the answer based on Sheen s history of substance abuse rehab stints assault charges mad online rants and ever-escalating wealth and popularity Are you thinking to yourself Holy s t I m untouchable Renzi inquires Does that go through a guy s mind when he has that kind of power Sheen calmly replies Yes Related Paula Deen s quest for redemption Netflix debuted aka Charlie Sheen on November a day after his memoir The Book of Sheen was distributed A Sunday New York Times profile heralded their arrival but the bigger revelation was the -year-old actor s normalcy compared to the burning memories of his blistering crack-fueled flameout particular years ago I was a little startled that this onetime self-proclaimed high priest Vatican assassin warlock now carries a satchel complete with a travel-size coffee spoon because he doesn t like the sticks they hand out on airplanes the reporter observed I was expecting him to blaze up on a Harley with a Bowie knife in his boot The version of Sheen defending his life in the two-part documentary is similarly calm even as he peppers his recollections with profanity We d expect nothing less from a teen heartthrob whose movie dominance came to a screeching halt by the end of the s when he nearly died from an overdose For largest part actors that would be that Sheen returned from his very residents stay at a drug healing facility to a TV career beginning with a two-season run on Spin City Netflix Charlie Sheen Then came Two and a Half Men and a black hole of downward spiral exhaustively covered in the media Sheen slammed against rock bottom several times before but those trips to rehab and eventual career recoveries hadn t occurred in a media age accelerated by social media and dehumanized by GIFs and viral clips This time Sheen s cocaine-powered rants and explosive fits didn t elicit sympathy People determined them entertaining even heroic His legendarily unhinged interview with ABC News Andrea Canning which took place after he was fired from Two and a Half Men exploded his Twitter following Online ravings about tiger blood and winning earned him a Live Nation tour with a cry for help as its title My Violent Torpedo of Truth Defeat is Not An Option It was a accident how could it be anything otherwise but tickets sold out in minutes While this makes the documentary swagger with s and s popcorn nostalgia it also confirms what kind of person results from having everything handed to them and never suffering the consequences for setting that good fortune on fire The thing about guys trying to be like Charlie Sheen is they wear borrowed danger like drugstore cologne Back in Sheen s s heyday they left chemical trails of Drakkar Noir or Polo in their wake their modern equivalents overdose on Axe body spray But they re also masters of the charm offensive a thrill to be around Being the son of Martin Sheen comes with plenty of benefits and privileges Martin handed Charlie his first opportunities including having Charlie partner with him in a TV stunt pitting actors against athletes Their opponent A promising rookie named Michael Jordan Stories like these make aka Charlie Sheen an uneasy good time Sheen has several wild tales like fondly sharing that he used to make Super movies with his brother and Sean Penn or that a phone call from Clint Eastwood served as the grand finale of his first intervention Renzi uses dozens of scenes from Sheen s films to illustrate his life story along with a sparse judiciously employed re-enactments While this makes the documentary swagger with s and s popcorn nostalgia it also confirms what kind of person results from having everything handed to them and never suffering the consequences for setting that good fortune on fire Netflix Charlie Sheen in aka Charlie Sheen But it seems as if people were invariably rooting for Sheen Considering the enduring popularity of one of the earliest movies in which he appears Ferris Bueller s Day Off one might even describe this as an effect of cultural conditioning Matthew Broderick s namesake character realizes every teen s fantasy of flouting authority and getting away with it the essence of rich white kid privilege He s puckish and likable a righteous dude The politician s kid I mentioned ceaselessly quoted that movie Sheen s account of his contribution Boy in Police Station adds to that legend His friend Jennifer Grey got him the part without his having to audition But he overslept missed his a m call time and arrived on the set more than an hour late Grey was furious Ferris Bueller director John Hughes didn t care One review of Sheen s brief appearance reported he smolders Did that give Sheen a sense that he could get away with things Renzi asks Maybe subconsciously the actor replies Or perhaps that was one of the a great number of small outs contributing to the idea that Sheen may be the patron saint of men escaping consequences It isn t for nothing that Sheen s Two and a Half Men co-star Jon Cryer referred to Donald Trump as the Charlie Sheen of politics back in Sheen for what it s worth has made no secret of his disdain for Trump None of what Trump did or is doing falls on Sheen s shoulders But in an array of procedures he embodied the popular perception that skating away from destructive self-serving behavior is something we should expect rich white boys to do So you re p d off because he ditches and doesn t get caught Is that it he asks Grey s character Jeannie in Ferris Bueller before concluding Your matter is you You ought to spend a little more time dealing with yourself and a little less time worrying about what your brother does One quality Sheen s truth-blitz has in its favor besides its unexpectedness is Sheen s relative absence for preponderance of the past decade Bless the man for giving us time to forget about him and moreover examining the industry that responded to his disturbing exploits by giving him raises Netflix Denise Richards in aka Charlie Sheen Among the documentary s terrible cameos via archival footage is disgraced former CBS structure head Les Moonves Not long after a call from Sheen s third wife Brooke Mueller went masses and alleged he threatened her with a knife CBS signed him to a two-year deal paying him million an episode making Sheen the highest-paid TV star in history This is endemic to this industry s ongoing challenge with enabling sick people But the audience also participates in that That shouldn t be news to anybody who devoured Depp v Heard less for the testimony than to hoot at the accompanying circus We were already barreling toward that low a decade before the documentary reminds us that the episode of Two and a Half Men that aired after his assault arrest earned particular of the highest ratings in the series history That Mueller and Sheen s second wife Denise Richards appear in aka Charlie Sheen along with two of his five children to tell their side of their stories while confirming he s a great friend and father is a testament to his recovery Sheen has also made amends with Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre and Cryer both of whom appear as supporters and friends My theory has dependably been that I don t know that he believes that he deserves what he s got Cryer says I think there s a part of him that throws it all away just to see if he ever deserved it That is what drives people crazy who are close to him is that there s so multiple great things about him If he only considered it he might stop burning it all down Renzi offers a balancing contrast in unflattering perspectives from the likes of former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss surrounded by her private flock of exotic birds Ah symbolism Sheen was one of her top clients spending a small fortune to enjoy her escorts company He was also the the bulk famous to testify against her She reminds viewers that while guys like Robert Mitchum didn t give up their pot dealers when they were caught back in the day Sheen is a crybaby rich boy He s a rich kid from Malibu They re not going to do s t to him He s Charlie Sheen Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Program Fleiss was urgent the law of discipline But none of her rich powerful clients were charged Men like that allow others to take their punishments for them Sheen s contrition permeates aka Charlie Sheen giving his latest rise from the ashes a benevolent glow Charisma has reliably been his superpower allowing him to glean credit for his final act confession that he s slept with men without explicitly saying so Instead he leaves it to Renzi to put it in straightforward terms while he circles the admission with statements about the other side of the menu Meanwhile Sheen s pointed denial of Corey Feldman s allegation that he sexually assaulted Corey Haim on the set of the film Lucas leaves no room for interpretation Netflix Heidi Fleiss in aka Charlie Sheen Plenty of other details about Sheen s life are conveniently left out or glossed over as if to assume that the actor s reputational salvation isn t hiding in his filmography or testimonials from famous friends Neither Martin Sheen nor Emilio Estevez accepted invitations to appear in the documentary we re reported via intertitle but Sheen s other brother Ramon represents the family s supportive view ably enough If a person were looking for a reason to root for Charlie Sheen again as so countless will they might appreciate his admission of shame a rare halo in this time of shamelessness When you ve got a lot of shame about a lot of stuff shame is suffocating he says But in the same way shame can turn into someone s North Star you know or their South Star Or the Death Star Don t waste too much potential worrying about his comeback odds Sheen stated the Times that he s open to acting but isn t pursuing it which sounds humble and might even be true Ultimately that doesn t matter because opportunity will pursue him That s how life works for the world s Charlie Sheens Remember that fun guy I described who had a habit of driving under the influence These days he co-owns a boutique liquor company Winning aka Charlie Sheen is at the moment streaming on Netflix Read more about this topic Depp v Heard predicted young male voters flocking to Trump Can Charlie Sheen be saved Men wield the media against women Why do we keep letting them The post Charlie Sheen s consequence-free life appeared first on Salon com
