The Actor Was Offered a Role in Two and a Half Men, for Which He Could Have Received $700,000 Per Episode, but Turned It Down
After Charlie Sheen's dismissal, the search was on for another actor to replace him in Two and a Half Men. Unfortunately, the first option of the series' creators didn’t pan out, as the cinema star didn’t want to join the project not knowing much about his role.
As is well known by now, Charlie Sheen was fired from Two and a Half Men in 2011 due to his addiction and a dispute with series creator Chuck Lorre. The team behind the production had to find someone to replace him in order to continue the series. Sheen's successor to the surprise of many was Ashton Kutcher, who played millionaire Walden Schmidt in Two and a Half Men.
However, Kutcher wasn’t the first choice of the series' creators, who initially wanted to see someone else in Charlie Sheen's place. Namely, for Two and a Half Men they wanted to cast Hugh Grant, to whom they went with an offer for the role. However, the actor turned it down because, as he explained on the program, The Howard Stern Show, they had not given him any script and did not yet have a concept for his character. He, in turn, didn’t want to make a commitment to something he didn’t know much about.
They talked to me about it. But the problem was they didn't have a script or a new character. They just said “Trust us, we'll create one.” […] I said well it's very difficult to me to consider this without a script. They said, "Trust us." I said, "Well, you're obviously brilliantly talented”, because I like that show and they make brilliant TV shows really, but I said, "I'm too scared to sign up without a script.”
The actor appreciated the work of the creators of Two and a Half Men and admitted that he liked the TV series himself, but was afraid to agree to the show, not knowing what he would actually be playing, so he turned down the chance. In his place came Kutcher, who played a different character than the one described to Grant, which he also talked about on this program.
Kutcher could count on a salary of $700,000 per episode. And probably no smaller sum would have been offered to Hugh Grant, being a cinema star. The sum could be even higher, given that Charlie Sheen, working on his last season, was reportedly paid $1.8 million per episode.
