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'Men' crew recall Sheen's on-set decline

Although Charlie Sheen has long claimed that the ups, downs and general indulgences of his private life never really affected his acting work, some “Two and a Half Men” insiders say that just isn’t true. Sources say the man currently preparing for a legal battle with his former network and studio bosses slowly unraveled on set.In a Daily Beast report, crew members and co-workers revealed t

Although Charlie Sheen has long claimed that the ups, downs and general indulgences of his private life never really affected his acting work, some “Two and a Half Men” insiders say that just isn’t true. Sources say the man currently preparing for a legal battle with his former network and studio bosses slowly unraveled on set.

In a Daily Beast report, crew members and co-workers revealed that the actor kept his composure during the show’s first four seasons — otherwise known as his Denise Richards days. But Sheen’s partying apparently picked up after he divorced Richards and met and married Brooke Mueller.

By the show’s seventh season, insiders alleged the star started taking his post-party problems to work.

“He hated being there and he’d tell us,” one source said. “He’d complain about his character’s costume and just being there in general. Some of us wondered if he was trying to play us and get us talking about that as a play for his contract negotiations.”

But eventually it became obvious that something more was going on. On-set sources say Sheen could no longer hide his troubles after his October 2010 hotel smash-up and hospital stay.

“The writers were having to write around him a lot,” another insider explained to the Daily Beast. “They had him sitting on a couch a lot, and the focus was more on Jon Cryer and (Angus T. Jones). Charlie was forgetting his lines and he never did that before. He got progressively worse. Up close, you’d see that he was gaunt and pale and his eyes were crossed.”

According to yet another member of the crew, Sheen’s increasingly outrageous behavior, which eventually led to his termination, left many feeling “ a lot of anger toward” the actor.

“We don’t wish terrible things for him,” the source told the Daily Beast. “I just don’t ever want to see him again. I definitely don’t want to work with him.”

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