Chuck Lorre Reveals the Hollywood Heartthrob Who Nearly Replaced Charlie Sheen on ‘Two and a Half Men’

Few sitcom shake-ups have been as public, or as messy, as the moment ‘Two and a Half Men’ lost Charlie Sheen. Back in 2011, Sheen’s contract was terminated amid a very public addiction battle and his disparaging remarks about co-creator Chuck Lorre, leaving one of TV’s biggest comedies without its leading man.

The hunt for a replacement immediately became a Hollywood guessing game. Names like Rob Lowe, Woody Harrelson, Jeremy Piven and John Stamos were all tossed around by speculators, while insiders said Lorre wanted someone he could actually work with and was keen on an exciting actor who had never done TV before.

Now, Lorre is pulling back the curtain in his new memoir, ‘Sitcom’, which hit shelves on October 13. In it, he reveals that before Ashton Kutcher ever entered the picture, the role was very nearly Hugh Grant’s.

According to Lorre, he and his creative partner Lee Aronsohn met with the ‘Notting Hill’ star several times and even wrote scenes to show him the kind of character they had in mind, one tailored to his signature screen persona. The offer was eye-popping: $750,000 per episode and a 4-day workweek.

The biggest hurdle wasn’t money. Grant admitted he was frightened by the idea of performing in front of a live studio audience, so Lorre offered to scrap the audience entirely and rely on recorded laughter instead.

Negotiations reportedly got as far as the contract stage. Lorre writes that he was told Grant had a pen in hand and was about to sign before abruptly leaving the room and becoming unreachable, with the final word eventually arriving from his agent or manager.

Lorre admits he can only speculate about the reasoning, but told PEOPLE he believes Grant decided the sitcom simply wasn’t the right move for his career. Rather than holding a grudge, Lorre says he respects Grant for seemingly putting creative ambition ahead of a massive payday.

Grant has addressed the episode before. During an appearance on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show, he explained that the producers had no script or new character to show him and essentially asked him to trust them, which gave him pause.

He did acknowledge that the paycheck on the table was enormous. At the time, Deadline reported that the offer was as high as $1 million per episode, a figure that now differs from Lorre’s account.

Losing Grant hit Lorre hard. He told then-CBS chairman Les Moonves he believed the series was finished, and even Jon Cryer admitted he had laughed at the idea of landing Grant in the first place.

Kutcher ultimately stepped in, though Lorre initially worried he was too young for the part. A single meeting changed his mind, and the actor went on to play Walden Schmidt, an internet billionaire who buys Charlie Harper’s beach house.

The gamble paid off. While many American outlets predicted the show would flop without Sheen, the 9th season actually drew better ratings than the 8th, and the retooled sitcom ran for 4 more seasons with Kutcher earning a reported $700,000 per episode.

Grant, for his part, has said he kept watching the show even after Kutcher took over. The relationship between Lorre and Sheen has also mellowed with time, with Sheen later appearing as an exaggerated version of himself in Lorre’s comedy series ‘Bookie’.

Still, it’s hard not to wonder how different ‘Two and a Half Men’ might have looked with a charming British lead trading quips with Jon Cryer. Cryer himself reportedly pictured Grant playing a British con artist, a version of the show fans will now only ever get to imagine.

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