Director reveals why Charlie Sheen’s documentary was almost ruined
Netflix dropped a bombshell documentary this year, aka Charlie Sheen, the one that viewers had waited for with bated breath. But just a day ahead of the Netflix release, Charlie Sheen’s tell-all memoir, The Book of Sheen, came out, leaving the director, Andrew Renzi, to grapple with whether it could have spoiled the documentary.
In a lengthy video call interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Renzi opened up about his filming process for aka Charlie Sheen, how he managed to pack so many eye-grabbing headlines inside a two-part documentary, and ultimately, the probability surrounding The Book of Sheen’s negative impact on the documentary.
Coming to the third and the most burning question of the hour, Renzi was asked whether Sheen’s memoir’s release a day before, aka Charlie Sheen’s drop, angered him that it spoiled the reveals or if the documentary is now a marketing catalyst. For the director, the Netflix documentary was a harbinger of experiences he had never had before. So, of course, he gave the possibility for food for thought.
But what fascinated and consoled Renzi about The Book of Sheen, and aka Charlie Sheen, is that the Two and a Half Men actor decided to write the book simultaneously while filming the Netflix project. He, in fact, interviewed for the Netflix documentary before he started penning the book. Subsequently, the director added, “It felt like he became the best version [of himself] for the film because he had this creative outlet all his own.”
If anything, when Renzi read the pages, it allowed him to understand Sheen better. And since the actor was writing The Book of Sheen, he complemented the documentary with everything that he wrote within the memoir. As for whether they each serve as marketing tools for each other, he doesn’t play coy because he really doesn’t know how that works.
The only setback he felt was the fact that books come with a “longer-lead press” than a streaming documentary. “So a lot of the things that I felt ownership of in the doc came out [in the press before the documentary debuted],” Renzi recounted.
Sure, he felt sorry for himself for nearly 20 minutes, but that’s about it. With 100 million people still watching aka Charlie Sheen, the director knew things were actually not that bad. For him, to feel the way he did was organic, he feels. But if you think he holds bad blood or any type of resentment about how things turned out, you’re wrong.