Clint Eastwood made a brief phone call in 1990 that Charlie Sheen says was decisive in convincing him to enter rehab, the actor recounts in the Netflix docuseries "aka Charlie Sheen" and in his new memoir, "The Book of Sheen."
Sheen described being lured to what he thought was his father Martin Sheen’s birthday party on Aug. 3, 1990, only to find an "expertly organized circle of people" assembled for an intervention. The group included his parents, siblings Ramon, Emilio and Renée, actor Rob Lowe, his seventh-grade history teacher and his yoga instructor, among others. When Sheen began to "hatch[ ] a plan to get away," Martin told him, "There’s someone on the phone who wants to talk to you." It was Eastwood, Sheen said, who told him he was "worth saving" and urged him to get the "train back on the tracks."
Sheen said the call was "really powerful," and that after he thanked Eastwood and handed the phone back to his father he agreed to go get help. Eastwood does not appear in the documentary and, according to Sheen’s account, phoned in his remarks from elsewhere. Page Six reported that Eastwood had not responded to a request for comment.
The intervention and the phone call are among the episodes Sheen revisits in both the Netflix series and his memoir, which was published the same week the docuseries was released. Sheen also recounts a period of heavy partying in which he and Nicolas Cage and other friends called themselves the "J-5," saying that lifestyle made him "sloppy" on set with Eastwood.
The new projects chronicle Sheen’s long struggle with drug and alcohol addiction and his path to recovery. While he entered rehab after the 1990 intervention, Sheen’s memoir and the series chart further relapses and recoveries. He has said he has been sober since 2017, a turning point he dated to a distressing incident in which his daughter, Sami, asked why he was not driving, apparently because he had been drinking. In the book, Sheen wrote that Sami’s quiet concern was not his "final straw" but the start of a change he described as a necessary "harvest."
Sheen is the father of five children: Cassandra, 40; Sami, 21; Lola, 20; and twins Bob and Max, 16. The series and book both examine how his addiction affected his personal and professional life, including highly publicized departures from projects and strained relationships.
The depiction of Eastwood’s short but influential intervention call adds to broader public accounts of Hollywood interventions in the late 20th century. The docuseries and memoir aim to provide a candid chronology of Sheen’s career, stumbles and the decades-long effort to maintain sobriety.
If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).