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Jon Cryer on Charlie Sheen: I Lived With the Fear of Something Horrible Happening to Him

Jon Cryer smelled trouble brewing long before Charlie Sheen got himself fired in epic fashion from their CBS show in 2011. During a chat with HuffPost Live on Thursday, Oct. 30, the Two and a Half Men actor, 49, told host Josh Zepps that he had concerns about his now-former costar’s well-being as early as 2006. 

Related: PHOTOS: Charlie's craziest controversies

“I think for me, and for a lot of people, the first sort of crack in the facade was when Charlie started going on the Alex Jones show and talking about 9/11 — that it was a conspiracy, and that it was a controlled demolition and all this stuff,” Cryer recalled when asked about the Anger Management star, also 49. “I remember driving into my parking space, and I saw him stepping out of his trailer, and I was like, ‘Uh, can we talk for a minute?'”

Things got worse from there. Over the next few years, Sheen finalized his divorce from Denise Richards, married Brooke Mueller — “probably a little too quickly,” Cryer quipped — and then found himself in trouble with the law for assaulting his now-ex-wife on Christmas Day in 2009. “I did not see the arrest coming, that’s for certain,” Cryer told HuffPost Live of Sheen’s bust. 

Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen

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“Anybody who’s had an addict as a friend knows that you live with this fear — you know, is the next phone call gonna be the one where something horrible has happened?” Cryer continued of his colleague, whose past substance-abuse problems are well-known. “And I had that a lot with Charlie. And it was very, very tough to live with.” 

It was tough to work with, too. Cryer told Zepps that he and Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre had “several” conversations about whether Sheen would be okay, and whether they or anyone else could “talk sense into him.”

Related: PHOTOS: Charlie and Denise's odd romance

“When you’re dealing with somebody dealing with a substance abuse problem, it’s tough to get through,” he explained. “And clearly I didn’t at the time.”

Eventually, of course, Sheen’s behavior got him killed off of his own show. He was replaced in 2011 by Ashton Kutcher, who has had his own problems with the star despite not sharing the screen with him. Sheen has, on more than one occasion, insulted Kutcher via Twitter, calling him (among other things) Cryer’s “lame sidekick.”

Related: PHOTOS: Celebs fight back on Twitter

“I don’t know why he does that, because he does it and then the next day he apologizes,” Cryer said of Sheen’s Twitter rants. “I feel for Ashton because he’s just showing up doing his job. He’s not asking for any of this stuff. It’s all unnecessary. I don’t know why Charlie feels the need to do it. But he comes out of it. And then he apologizes and he does it again. So you can’t think about it too much.” 

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