Jon Cryer Considered Ending Two and a Half Men For Charlie Sheen's Safety

When Charlie Sheen was dismissed from Two and a Half Men in 2011 due to struggles with substance abuse, he was replaced by Ashton Kutcher and the series continued for an additional four seasons. However, Sheen's co-star, Jon Cryer, said he seriously considered ending the CBS sitcom altogether in order to protect Sheen from himself.

Cryer told Entertainment Tonight that although working with Sheen during the comedy's early seasons "was an incredible joy," things changed when Sheen's personal life began affecting his work.

"We started noticing things were getting stranger for him, and his marriage fell apart, he was still lovely to work with, he still showed up on time and knew his lines and was doing the job. But you could tell that there was some trouble brewing," Cryer said.

He recalled "subtle" changes that indicated things were going south, like Sheen having issues with the show's writing. "I would say, 'This is the kind of joke you had no problem with a year and a half ago, and suddenly now it's an issue?'" Cryer recalled. "It took a while before it started really going off the rails."

Sheen's behavior became unpredictable, resulting in a public feud with series creator Chuck Lorre. Said Cryer, "It was such a crazy firestorm. Even internationally, you know? It was like the biggest thing."

Cryer and Lorre began to consider ending Two and a Half Men for the sake of Sheen's health and personal safety. "We said, 'It's not worth this show going on if going on enables Charlie Sheen to kill himself. If giving him enough money to do whatever the thing is that ends his life, you know, we don't want to be a part of that,' And I think, actually, when Charlie was let go from the show, the first thought amongst most of us was, 'OK, we're done. This has been a great thing but we're done at this point.'"

Lorre ultimately decided to kill off Sheen's character and replace him with Kutcher, which Cryer said was an important shift for the cast and crew.

"He was just so positive every day and just brought so much to the table that we were all a little shell shocked after the Sheen craziness," he said. "We had forgotten how tense we were all the time we were all waiting for the next shoe to drop. And once Ashton came in with this just incredible positive energy, we all went, 'Oh, this can be fun again!'"

Two and a Half Men is streaming on Peacock.

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Kirstie Renae is a writer, blogger, and Austin-based actress with a penchant for binge-watching TV with her dogs. Follow her on Twitter @KirstieRenae.