Jon Cryer wasn’t earning nearly as much as his “Two and a Half Men” costar, Charlie Sheen.
During Sheen’s final year on the sitcom, the “Platoon” star was making close to two million dollars an episode, while Cryer was earning at least two-thirds less than that, and it wasn’t until Sheen left that he began making $620,000 an episode.
The duo’s paychecks have come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the Netflix documentary “aka Charlie Sheen,” which details Sheen’s career, romances, and his infamous battles with drugs and alcohol.
In it, Cryer claims that Sheen’s contract negotiations “went off the charts because his life was falling apart.”
The “Pretty in Pink” star went on to compare Sheen to an infamous global henchman.
“The dictator of North Korea was a guy named Kim Jong-Il,” Cryer explained. “He acted crazy all the time and thus got enormous amounts of aid from countries who were so scared of him that they would shovel money at him.
“Well, that’s what happened here. [Sheen’s] 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.”
Cryer added that CBS was under the gun to sign Sheen because they had “pre-sold a couple extra seasons of the show.”
Eventually, Sheen, 60, was fired from the show in 2011 due to his erratic behavior, which included publicly criticizing the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, and claiming he was underpaid.
After being fired, the “Major League” star, who had proclaimed he had “tiger blood,” embarked on a tour.
Ashton Kutcher replaced Sheen after his departure, and the sitcom aired for four more seasons.
Cryer’s salary was then bumped up to $620,000 while Kutcher was being paid $700,000 per episode.
Other people interviewed in the documentary include Sheen’s childhood pal Sean Penn and two of Sheen’s ex-wives, Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller.
Richards, who shares two daughters, Sami and Lola, with Sheen, recalled that the “Two and a Half Men” producers would often call her to check up on her ex-husband when they had not heard from him.
During one visit, the former “Housewife” said she went to Sheen’s house with food, while Cryer was also there.
“I’m making sandwiches and Jon was super nervous and he goes, ‘What are you doing?’ I go, ‘Well, he hasn’t eaten and I’m making sandwiches,’” Richards recounted.
“And then you see two or three hookers come downstairs. And I remember Jon asking me, ‘Are you making them sandwiches?’ and I go, ‘Well, yeah. What am I gonna say? Sorry, because of what you do for a living, you don’t get one of my white trash mayo, mustard, turkey, cheese, lettuce sandwiches?’” she continued.
Sheen also discusses his HIV diagnosis in the documentary and opens up for the first time about having slept with men while using drugs.
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