Chuck Lorre Reveals How He Renewed His Friendship With Charlie Sheen After Public Fallout

Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre and Charlie Sheen have reignited their longtime friendship after their 2011 falling out.

Sheen publicly called the television producer a "little maggot," and a "stupid, stupid man" in a series of wild rants. He was eventually fired from the popular sitcom and the former friends weren't in contact for over ten years.

Lorre opened up what it was like to renew his friendship with the Anger Management actor and cast him in his upcoming new show, Bookie, where Sheen plays a fictionalized version of himself — but the journey there wasn't without its emotional moments.

The showrunner admitted that he couldn't watch Two and a Half Men reruns for years because it was "too painful." But finally, he got to a place where the situation was "old news."

"I loved working with Charlie on Two and a Half Men. We did 170 episodes together before it all fell apart," Lorre told a news outlet. "And more often than not, we had a good time. Assuming he’s in a good place, I’m in a good place."

Lorre admitted he was still "nervous" when he first contacted Sheen's reps about having him on the show.

"But almost as soon as we started talking, I remembered, we were friends once," he continued. "And that friendship just suddenly seemed to be there again."

"I don’t want to be too mawkish about it, but it was healing," he confessed. "And he was also totally game to make fun of himself [in the show]. When he came to the table read of that episode, I walked up, and we hugged. It was just great."

Lorre said Sheen "killed it" at the table read for the Bookie.

"His chops were just so finely tuned, as if we had not missed a beat," he added. "That really falls on Charlie being a really good sport. He’s playing a version of himself that has shadows of past problems and he was fine with it."

According to Lorre, the Platoon actor had one major request.

"He was kind of like, ‘can we not do the drug-addled Charlie anymore?’" the 71-year-old recalled.

Sheen's character had originally been running a poker game for inpatients while he was checked into a rehab facility, but Lorre agreed to change the story so that he simply rented out a room there to hold the games.

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Lorre spoke with Variety about his friendship with Sheen.