A healthier Charlie Sheen and ex-wife Denise Richards watch their daughter Sam’s soccer game earlier this month. (Aguilar/Jones, PacificCoastNews.)
Charlie Sheen said he sees his comeback in the new FX series “Anger Management” as him saying “sorry” to the country for his very public meltdown last year.
In an interview with “Today,” the former “Two and a Half Men” star discussed how he overcame his drug and alcohol problems.
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“It was a team effort that was ultimately led by myself,” Sheen said. “There were not a lot of people close by saying, ‘Dude, let’s just take a step back’.”
As he reflected on 2011’s “Torpedo of Truth” tour, Sheen said looking back at that is “cringeable,” because he doesn’t “recognize part of who that was.”
Now, Sheen is working on “Anger Management,” set to premiere on FX in June, and an upcoming movie. He’s also featured in TV commercials for DirecTV and Fiat.
He told “Today” that while there’s no drug testing on the set of his new sitcom, “unless something obvious happens,” there is a morals clause, “as there are in any contract.”
EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: INSIDE SHEEN’S ‘ANGER MANAGEMENT’
Sheen noted that people are being particularly careful because there’s “so much money at stake now.”
Indeed, Sheen reportedly has a back-end deal in “Anger Management” worth 20 percent, which could earn him big bucks if the show is a hit.
But, he said he addressed his troubled past with the “Anger Management” crew on their first day working together.
Despite his fresh start, Sheen admitted that he still has “a little bit” of bitterness towards “Two and a Half Men,” but he says he “just [has] to work through that.”
“I wish they’d taken better care of the child left behind,” he said.
Bruce Helford, exectuive producer of “Anger Management,” drew parallels between Sheen and the show’s main character for The Post in an exclusive interview today.
“Charlie has anger issues of his own,” Helford reveals in an exclusive preview of the show for The Post.
“You can’t help but see that there is some resonance between Charlie’s real life and this character,” Helford said. “He is a ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ sort of guy.”
“We see during the course of the show that he is often more messed up than his patients.”