Charlie Sheen's deranged drug stories you want to see

Partying for weeks under the influence of drugs and driving a plane stupidly drunk. Name it and Charlie Sheen has done it. The actor struggled with alcohol and drugs for almost his entire career - this cost him his head time and again. Literally and figuratively. Now, after all the fuss, he is eight years sober and ready to tell his story - which he does in the two-part documentary Aka Charlie Sheen on Netflix. Curious about his crazy stories? Get ready, because these are truly - and I mean this seriously - the craziest stories I (and you) have ever heard.

What is the documentary Aka Charlie Sheen about?

If the crazy partying side of Hollywood was one person, it was Charlie Sheen. All those stories of stars losing the thread over fame? That's him. Times ten. His story is that of a rock star. Even at eighteen, Charlie, who had previously gone through life as Carlos Estevez, started acting. He was eager to follow in the footsteps of his father, Martin Sheen. After playing in small films here and there, he was introduced to acting by a friend Jennifer Grey - yes the one from Dirty Dancing - the chance to have a scene in her new film Ferris Bueller's Day Off play. With that one scene, he became world-famous, and from there his career took off like a rocket.

The intense fame was a lot for young Charlie. He thought he could handle it all and partied daily with his friends in Hollywood. Soon he became addicted to drink and drugs. When he befriended Nicolas Cage at 22, things went downhill. Together they were like a whirlwind that destroyed everything in their path. He was the Oscar-winning actor for his role in Platoon by day, and a partying drug addict by night.

How did things go so wrong for Charlie Sheen?

At one point, Charlie felt invincible: almost everything he did, he got away with. Like that time in 1995 when he was stupidly drunk on a flight and was asked by the pilots to take a picture in the cockpit. Because of the alcohol, he got bold and asked if he could sit in the pilot's seat. Of course he could, and once in the seat he joked whether the ‘autopilot was still on’. Before he knew it, he had hold of the control stick and the co-pilot switched off the autopilot. Ladder-sat, he was suddenly flying through the air. And only because he was a celebrity. Or that time he was almost arrested when Nicolas Cage had kicked up a scene on a plane. Charlie had 30 kilos of cocaine taped to his leg, and was ‘almost fucked’. Only because the policemen were fans of the two were they allowed to just go. This only fanned Charlie's addiction.

In the documentary, we see how Charlie hit his biggest low while filming the sitcom Two and a Half Men. “My theory is that he doesn't think he deserves anything from what he's been given,” said his co-star Jon Cryer. “Part of him throws everything away to then see if he has earned it. If he believed he really deserved it, he's not going to fire it up and throw it away.” And that is exactly what kept happening.

Who do we all see in the documentary?

Virtually everyone who was ever an important person in Charlie's life is in the documentary. His ex-wife Denise Richards, his ex-wife Brooke Mueller, his Two and a Half Men co-star Jon Cryer, show creator Chuck Lorre, Chris Tucker, childhood friends Sean Penn and Tony Todd, old drug dealer Marco, brother Ramon Estevez and his children Lola and Bob.

His father, brother Emilio and sister Renée are not in the documentary. They wanted to keep the focus solely on Charlie, but are definitely still close to him.

And really, people don't mince words. If there was an award for the most honest documentary, this one would probably win it. Everyone tells it all. Like Denise: “The only reason I survived is because of my humour. We can laugh at most of it now. For example, when I said “Remember when you smashed all the TVs with a baseball bat?” We break down at that, but others think what are those two doing. If I didn't have that, I probably would have gone down a dark path.” Or like Marco, who tells how much cocaine Charlie took. They took so much which gave them the energy to party on for weeks to months. Jon in particular, was honest: “People said Charlie was like a breath of fresh air, but no. He was (the moment after he was fired from Two and a Half Men and mentally spiralled) a man who got everything he ever wanted from this industry, lost it and is now throwing a tantrum.”

What makes the Aka Charlie Sheen documentary good?

It is not for nothing that this docu is at spot 2 in the top 10 in the Netherlands. Everyone wants to hear the life of a rock star. What drug-addled Hollywood was like, and the myths surrounding it. And those stories go into the deepest details too; from Charlie injecting himself with cocaine to having to put an ice cube in his butt during filming to stay awake in a scene.

That is what attracts people: Charlie is extremely honest. These are literally things Charlie had “vowed years ago to reveal only to a therapist”. He doesn't just share the parties and he certainly doesn't play the victim. He own't his behaviour and expresses regret.

And if it seems like I've already given away the whole documentary, you're wrong. There is so much more. Whether you hate Charlie Sheen, admire him or just can't believe what you read: you want to see this docu.