Was Jon Cryer underpaid compared to Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men? Details revealed as actor talks pay gap

Jon Cryer has opened up about the pay gap during his Two and a Half Men days. While Charlie Sheen became TV's highest-paid actor, Cryer admits he earned far less: roughly one-third of Sheen's salary. This came out in Netflix's new documentary about Sheen --- aka Charlie Sheen.

Cryer played the constantly struggling Alan Harper on Two and a Half Men. His revelation surfaced even as the show continued filming during Sheen's public meltdowns. Cryer, known for his role in Pretty in Pink, described the pay difference matter-of-factly, without bitterness, at least by now.

Cryer (now 60) remembers those strange days back in 2010. Charlie Sheen had just entered rehab, and his personal life was unraveling publicly. Yet even as his world seemed to collapse, Sheen was "renegotiating his contract." The studio had already sold future seasons to networks. They couldn't afford to lose him.

That reality led to an unprecedented deal. Sheen walked away with two million dollars per episode, making him TV's highest-paid star at the time!

Cryer even went so far as to compare the situation to North Korea's former leader, Kim Jong Il. He recalled how the dictator "acted crazy all the time" to extract massive aid payments from frightened countries.

To actor Jon Cryer, the lesson seemed clear: chaos brought rewards. Stability didn't pay nearly as well. "Me, whose life was pretty good at that time," he confessed. "I got a third of that."

The great Two and a Half Men pay gap!

Two and a Half Men practically printed money for CBS at its peak.

The comedy centred on Charlie Sheen, who played the charming but irresponsible Charlie Harper, opposite Jon Cryer's tightly wound character Alan. Young Angus T. Jones grew up before viewers' eyes as Jake, the "half" in the title.

When ratings climbed sky-high, network bosses made keeping Sheen happy their top priority. However, fans can attest that his real-life partying grabbed almost as many headlines as Two and a Half Men itself.

By 2010, Charlie Sheen's struggles with substance abuse were escalating. Yet CBS executives kept paying him millions per episode. They feared canceling TV's top comedy if he left. Across the set, Jon Cryer watched quietly. His reliable work ethic didn't translate to bargaining power during contract negotiations.

The studio saw Sheen as irreplaceable; Cryer as replaceable.

Cryer’s history with Charlie Sheen

The Emmy-winning actor was upfront about his hesitation to join the documentary. "I worked with Charlie Sheen for eight years," he said with a tired chuckle.

"If you wonder what it’s like (...) when I started, I had hair."

His joke carried a heavier truth, and Cryer seemed wary of feeding into Sheen's pattern of public meltdowns and comebacks. Still, his account shows how wide the pay gap was between the two stars of Two and a Half Men.

Charlie Sheen's public meltdown got him replaced by Ashton Kutcher in 2011, but Jon Cryer stayed on quietly, steering the show until it ended in 2015. Sheen recently told ET he "[owes] Johnny a phone call." For Cryer, though, the memories of those paychecks might linger longer than an apology!

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