(Credit: Netflix)

Surprisingly, one of Netflix’s documentary subjects this year would be Charlie Sheen. Nevertheless, the streaming giant caught everyone off guard, with the success of aka Charlie Sheen.

After all, this was the very first time the Two and a Half Men actor weighed in on his drug and alcohol-fueled arc with utmost sincerity and frankness. According to the actor, the trail of destruction could have almost killed him.

But the Netflix documentary clarifies that several factors were at play in encouraging Sheen to sobriety, the most significant being his friends and family. Despite the support from his family, two notable members of his family were deliberately absent from the Netflix project, aka Charlie Sheen, his oldest brother Emilio Estevez and his father Martin Sheen.

Speaking to Tudum about their absence, director Andrew Renzi said that Estevez and his father declined participation not because they weren’t supporting, but because “they wanted to let Charlie have his moment.” He even had the opportunity to sit down and watch the documentary with them, and they were all in his favour.

Sheen’s early story is mostly told in the background of his father’s struggles with addiction, which resulted in a heart attack and a difficult recovery while filming Apocalypse Now. Martin Sheen’s career and support highlighted the Hot Shots! actor’s life and subsequent career. In fact, Sheen’s father was the constant touchstone for the subject throughout the two-part film. “I thought that it was beautifully poetic to have to tell the story without him,” he said on Netflix’s You Can’t Make This Up podcast.

Renzi explained, “From my perspective, […] Martin, as a father, didn’t want to just have some guy sit across from him and make him relive all of those moments, [which] he feels are behind him now.” While that’s something to be utterly respected, it answers the questions arising around their notable absence from aka, Charlie Sheen.

The documentary, however, included footage from films that starred both Martin and Charlie Sheen, like Wall Street (1987) and Cadence (1990). It has been used to underscore their emotional connection and highlight their crucial moments of a shared and lived reality. “There is not a father-and-son duo in the history of entertainment who have shared the screen as much as Charlie and Martin have,” Renzi added.

Stressing his choice to use footage from Wall Street in aka Charlie Sheen, the director reminded how the Platoon actor portrayed a son who had lost track of his life, while his real-life father portrayed an on-screen dad who wanted to restore his focus. “I thought it was a great way to have Martin live in this movie,” Renzi concluded.