{"id":931662,"date":"2026-10-13T16:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931662\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T16:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:22:22","slug":"two-and-a-half-men-creator-reveals-star-who-nearly-replaced-charlie-sheen-on-two-and-a-half-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931662\/","title":{"rendered":"Two and a Half Men creator reveals star who nearly replaced Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Charlie Sheen\u2019s<\/a> exit from Two and a Half Men <\/a>paved the way for Ashton Kutcher to join the sitcom, but not before others were considered for the role.<\/p>\n

Sheen starred on the show from 2003 to 2011 before he was infamously fired after exhibiting erratic behavior and making disparaging remarks about the show\u2019s creator, Chuck Lorre<\/a>. He was replaced by Ashton Kutcher, who took on a different leading role to keep the show afloat.<\/p>\n

However, Kutcher may not have been the first choice to replace Sheen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a new interview with E! News<\/a>, Lorre revealed: \u201cWe had several meetings with Hugh Grant and Lee Aronsohn and I, my partner on that project, wrote several scenes to show him what we thought might be a character that he would play \u2014 very much like a Hugh Grant type of character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lorre also noted in his new memoir, Sitcom, that Grant was offered $750,000 per episode and a four-day work week. <\/p>\n

\"HughHugh Grant was approached about replacing Charlie Sheen on ‘Two and a Half Men’ (Getty)\"CharlieCharlie Sheen starred on \u2018Two and a Half Men\u2019 from 2003 to 2011 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Grant was \u201con board for a moment,\u201d Lorre told the publication. But it didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it came time to sign a contract and proceed, he bailed. He just bailed,\u201d Lorre continued. \u201cI’ve never spoken with him since that time. Just some agent or manager called and said, \u2018Mr. Grant doesn’t want to do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted a representative for Grant for comment.<\/p>\n

Lorre spoke to then-president of CBS Les Moonves after the deal fell through, saying, \u201cI guess the show is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Moonves urged Lorre to meet with Kutcher instead.<\/p>\n

\"ChuckChuck Lorre’s new memoir ‘Sitcom’ discusses his career at length (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was sharp and funny and just a genuinely wonderful human being,\u201d Lorre told E! News. \u201cWe wound up doing four years with Ashton and we had a lot of fun. And there was absolutely no drama, no crisis. We got to put on a funny show every week with Ashton. So, that was kind of a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kutcher joined a cast that included Jon Cryer<\/a>, Angus T. Jones, Conchata Ferrell, Melanie Lynskey, Holland Taylor and Marin Hinkle. The series ran for four more seasons after Sheen\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

Lorre, for his part, is often referred to as the \u201cKing of Sitcoms\u201d thanks to a successful multi-decade career helping to create hit shows including The Big Bang Theory<\/a> and Mom.<\/p>\n

He discusses his career at length in his memoir, Sitcom, which is slated to be released October 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,62824,319882,588,75,190025,9987,319883,319880,62828,171,10000,714,100497,348,3585,319881],"class_list":["post-931662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-color-image","tag-day-2","tag-england","tag-entertainment","tag-headshot","tag-horizontal","tag-hugh-grant-actor","tag-liverpool-england","tag-one-person","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-uk-labour-party-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}