Charlie Sheen reflects on ‘victory and the blood of the tiger’ a decade after his life derailed

Charlie Sheen’s illustrious acting career has arguably been overshadowed in the media by his days as a “ victory ” “ warlock ” during a very public outage ten years ago.

On the 10th anniversary of Sheen’s “tiger blood” collapse, the 55-year-old recounts his downfall and makes plans for his “Act 3” in a candid new interview with Yahoo! Entertainment.

In 2011, Sheen was at the peak of his professional career as the highest paid actor on television when he entered addiction and mental health issues.

‘People have [said to] me, “Hey, man, that was so cool, that was so fun to watch. It was so cool to be a part of and support and all that energy and, you know, we stuck it to the man. “Sheen recalls in her interview.

“My thought behind it is, ‘Oh, yeah, great. I’m so glad I traded early retirement for a fucking hashtag, “he continued, referring to #winning and #tigerblood – two of his famous phrases that are definitely part of the zeitgeist of pop culture.

Ten years ago, Charlie had dozens of high-profile film roles under his belt and grossed nearly two million from an episode of his hit CBS sitcom Two and Half Men.

Despite his burgeoning professional success, the actor was internally embarking on a dark path of drug addiction and mental health issues in the wake of his divorce from his third wife Brooke Mueller.

Sheen gave a series of high-profile interviews with various news outlets where he seemed hyper, off-balance, and scattered. The glassy-eyed star delivered his now iconic phrases declaring that he ‘won’, drank ‘tiger blood’, had ‘adonis DNA’ and other ramblings.

When the network executives tried to bring him back, he demanded a higher salary and engaged in a public feud with CBS powers-that-be like Les Moonves and Chuck Lorre.

‘There is a time when [former CBS CEO] The Moonves and his best lawyer, Bruce, were at my house and they said, “OK, the Warner filled up on the track. Wheels in an hour and go to rehab, right?” My first thought was kind of like really… there’s some comical value in my first thought, ”Sheen recalls.

“At that point, when I said, ‘Oh, fuck, I finally got the Warner jet.’ That’s all I heard,” he continued, adding regretfully. “ But if I could turn back time to that point, I would have been on the jet. And it was that giant left turn at that point that led to, you know, a very unfortunate streak of public and senseless events.

Sheen was fired from Two and a Half Men in March 2011 and replaced on the show by Ashton Kutcher.

“There were 55 different ways for me to handle this situation, and I chose number 56,” he said. “ And so, you know, I think growing for me after the collapse or melting forward or melting somewhere – whatever you want to call it – it has to start with absolute ownership of my role in all of this. . Adding that his behavior was “hopelessly youthful”.

Unknown to the public at the time, Sheen was diagnosed with HIV the same year – a fact he would reveal later in 2015. When he finally announced his diagnosis, the actor revealed that since 2011 he had been diagnosed with HIV. spent nearly $ 10 million to keep her HIV. status a secret.

“I think it was the drugs or the after effects of the drugs… and it was also an ocean of stress and a volcano of disdain,” the Major League star said of his outage. “It was all self-generated, you know.

“I was loaded and my brain wasn’t functioning properly,” Sheen continued. “To say it was a bit overwhelming is a radical understatement.”

The 2011 incidents were not Sheen’s first or even second approach to substance abuse. Charlie has been arrested on drug and assault charges in the past, and in 1998 he overdosed on cocaine, suffered a stroke.

He also went to rehab several times for his problems.

After his dismissal from Two and a Half Men, Sheen presented a series of sold-out one-man shows at Radio City Musical hall with hordes of fans wearing tiger blood T-shirts and shouting “ win ” from the audience. .

The support and fanfare of his bottom moment as if he was intentionally performative, he recalls, really made things worse for him.

“ They showed up in droves with banners and songs, all kind of fanfare and celebration of, you know, what I think was a very public display of a mental health moment, ” he said. he stated looking back.

In the wake of his breakup, Sheen appeared to have recovered and starred in the Anger Management series on FX for two seasons, but then largely fell off the map. He intends to get back on camera, however.

“ I just, I have absolute faith that the things that I’m going to do professionally in Act 3 are going to muzzle all of these things and that people can celebrate me again for what I actually do for a living ‘ ‘he told Yahoo. .