Charlie Sheen in Netflix doc 'aka Charlie Sheen.' Courtesy of Netflix Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Before filming a frame of aka Charlie Sheen, director Andrew Renzi (Pepsi, Where's My Jet?) spent "about a year" with his famous - and infamous - subject. "I needed to know, 'Is this a guy that I want to make a movie about?' Renzi told The Hollywood Reporter. "He needed to know, 'Is this a good idea for me? Do I want to do this?'" As it turns out, the answer to both questions was yes. Over those preproduction bonding months, Renzi says he learned two things about Charlie Sheen: 1) He is definitely sober this time, and 2) There was a lot to talk about. Related Stories TV Netflix, AMC Extend Streaming Pact Business Navigating a Hollywood in Flux: Three Days at Toronto's Access Canada Summit One of their talking points was the reveal that Sheen had sex with men in his drug-fueled days. In your traditional celebrity documentary - especially one focused on a known Lothario like Sheen - that might be a standalone bombshell reveal. With Sheen, it was just that part of the interview. "Him talking about his sexuality for the first time is not even that crazy because [his life story] is all so crazy," Renzi said. Renzi rounded up a number of Sheen associates, including his Two & a Half Men co-star Jon Cryer, Sheen's longtime friend and fellow actor Sean Penn, one drug dealer and a couple of ex-wives (including Denise Richards), and went to work. Sheen's dad Martin Sheen and his brother Emilio Estevez declined to participate, but the support of both are felt in the film. There is a lot to unpack in telling the life story of Charlie Sheen - it's just too bad for Renzi and Netflix that Sheen's own memoir, The Book of Sheen, came out one day before their documentary. THR talked about all of that and more in a lengthy video call with Renzi; read the Q&A below. *** The topic of celebrity oversight in documentaries is an important one. Did Charlie or his team have any say in terms of editorial? Zero. Charlie has no team, first of all, which is fun. Charlie's team is Charlie. Potentially, one of the things I needed - and I think he needed, too, that is probably very rare in the celebrity documentary thing, which could be looked at as a good or a bad thing - is that we spent about a year together before we filmed anything for this movie. Part of the thing that I wanted to accomplish with this was to not have it feel like some spur-of-the-moment [interview]. Like, "I read this about you, so I'm going to ask you about this right now." That wasn't the vibe. I wanted to make something that was comprehensive to a life that you could literally grab one headline out of 50 million headlines and make an entire movie about. There was always this understanding that I was stepping into a bit of shit doing this, and that it was going to be impossible to please people who come in with preconceived notions, or people who come in purely loving him or purely hating him - and that was what I loved about it. How did you pare down the "50 million headlines" for a two-part doc? I went into this hoping to see more about my faves, like Hot Shots! and Wall Street, but with an expansive career and an overabundance of personal issues to cover, you really had to pick your deep dives. Another thing I learned about Charlie throughout this process is that everybody has their own idea about what they want from him. "Contrition" is a big word that comes up. Well, maybe he's not the most contrite guy in the world. We went so far with things because he is who he is. Like, him talking about his sexuality for the first time is not even that crazy because [his life story] is all so crazy. It was this negotiation I constantly made with myself to say, "What do I care about the world experiencing when they watch this thing?" And hopefully that lands. It might not for some, [but maybe] for others. Did you ask Charlie how he personally identifies his sexuality? I don't even know if that's an appropriate question to expect an answer to in 2025... I did ask that question. I asked it myself because I was curious, and his answer was less important to me than his answer about the [bigger picture]. There's no identification in that way. It's almost like a question that to him is obnoxious, because it's like, "That's not who I am." He says it on camera, he didn't close the chapter on that, but it's something that he has had to reconcile with for a very long time that is intertwined with his drug use and not intertwined with his drug use now that he's been sober for a long time. I think that, to him, there is 100 percent no label that he could even apply to it responsibly. And that feels kind of 2025. Who woulda thunk Charlie Sheen would be, in this moment, one of the more representative p