Jon Cryer Says He Was Only Paid A Third Of What Charlie Sheen Was Making For 'Two And A Half Men'

Actors Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen shared screen space in the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men, created by Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn. However, Jon Cryer's salary was a pittance compared to Charlie Sheen's payday, reported People.

"He's in the midst of falling apart in every way that I can imagine, and he's renegotiating his contract for another year of a show that I'm supposed to be on, too," Cryer recalled in the new Netflix documentary, as per the outlet.

Cryer likened the Wall Street star to a former prominent dictator.

"The dictator of North Korea was a guy named Kim Jong-Il. He acted crazy all the time and thus got enormous amounts of aid from countries that were so scared of him that they would shovel money at him," Cryer said. "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," as quoted by People.

Sheen was dismissed from the show in 2011 due in large part to his off-camera struggles, in which he publicly criticised show creator Chuck Lorre. Sheen famously said he had "tiger blood" and was "winning." He also said he was underpaid, despite being the highest-paid actor on TV.

In the documentary, Cryer revealed that CBS had "pre-sold a couple extra seasons of the show," so the network had an incentive to "spend this astonishing amount of money on Charlie."

For his part, Sheen candidly reflected on that era in his life and his thoughts toward Two and a Half Men.

"I remember saying, 'Dude, I dunno man. I'm feeling emotionally done there,' " he says in the doc. "'And I get there's a ton of money at stake, and I get there's a lot more juice to be squeezed out of this thing, but I don't know how much juice is left in me. And I do fear if I go back, it's gonna go terribly wrong.' I said those words," reported People.

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