Chuck Lorre says Hugh Grant came close to replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men, with negotiations reaching the contract stage before the actor walked away.
The sitcom’s co-creator discussed the failed deal in an Oct. 12 interview with E! News. He and fellow creator Lee Aronsohn had met with Grant several times while considering how to continue the show.
The search followed Sheen’s departure in 2011, leaving the producers looking for a new lead opposite Jon Cryer. Lorre revisits that period in his memoir, Sitcom, published Oct. 13.
E! said it contacted Grant’s representative for comment but had not received a response.
Lorre Offered to Remove the Live Studio Audience
CBS and Warner Bros. offered Grant $750,000 per episode and a four-day workweek, according to Lorre’s memoir, as reported by USA TODAY. Lorre and Aronsohn also wrote sample scenes to demonstrate a character shaped around the actor’s familiar comic style.
Grant told Lorre he was frightened by the prospect of performing before a live studio audience. Lorre offered to eliminate the spectators and use recorded laughter instead. “Clearly I have no moral compass,” he jokes in the book about that concession.
Lorre writes that he was told Grant had a pen in hand and was about to sign when he abruptly left the room and became unreachable. A representative eventually informed the producers that the actor no longer wanted to participate.
In his E! interview, Lorre said the final message came from an agent or manager. He said he has not spoken with the actor since the negotiations ended.
Grant Said He Was Afraid to Commit Without a Script
During an Aug. 10, 2016, interview with Howard Stern, Grant recalled being asked to trust the producers to develop a script and character for him. He admired their work and liked the sitcom, but wanted to know what he would be signing up to play.
“I’m too scared to sign up without a script,” he remembered telling them, according to Entertainment Tonight‘s contemporary account of the interview. He described the proposed salary as “stratospheric” and admitted he had not realized how lucrative American television could be.
Grant continued watching after Ashton Kutcher joined. He thought the show remained good, but said Kutcher’s character was clearly different from the one the writers would have created for him. That made it difficult to judge how his own version might have worked.
Jon Cryer Expected Grant to Play a British Con Artist
Cryer had discussed the proposed casting in his own April 2016 appearance on The Howard Stern Show. He recalled receiving a cryptic text from Lorre suggesting that the series might have a future and calling him to find out what he meant.
When Lorre mentioned Grant, Cryer laughed. “There’s no way we’re getting Hugh Grant,” he remembered thinking. The proposed character was a charming British con artist, according to the show’s account of Cryer’s interview.
Meeting Ashton Kutcher Changed Lorre’s Mind
After the Grant negotiations collapsed, Lorre told then-CBS chairman Les Moonves that he thought the series was finished. Moonves suggested Kutcher, but Lorre initially questioned whether he was too young to play the new lead opposite Cryer.
Moonves urged him to take the meeting anyway. Lorre recalled being impressed by Kutcher’s humor and intelligence once they sat down together, abandoning his initial reservations about the casting.
CBS and Warner Bros. announced Kutcher’s casting on May 13, 2011. He entered the series as Walden Schmidt, a wealthy internet entrepreneur recovering from a breakup. Kutcher remained through the series finale in 2015, giving Two and a Half Men four more seasons.