As they have been writing the pilot script for his or her new Max comedy sequence “Bookie,” co-creators and Nick Bakay thought it will be enjoyable so as to add a real-life Hollywood star enjoying a model of themself as an inveterate gambler. The sequence stars humorist Sebastian Maniscalco as Los Angeles sports activities betting bookie, so it made sense that his character would possibly run into a couple of high-roller celebrities throughout his travels.
In early drafts of that Lorre and Bakay script, the character was left as a “TBD” — to be decided. However Lorre couldn’t shake an thought he had for who could be good for the position: “It ought to be Charlie,” he tells Selection. “I bear in mind Charlie was very a lot engaged in in sports activities betting and he would inform me tales about it on a regular basis. , when issues have been good.”
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That’s “Charlie” as in — and casting him on “Bookie” (which premieres Nov. 30 on Max) was an concept that got here loaded with baggage. Lorre and Sheen hadn’t talked in additional than a decade, following their very public falling out in 2011. That’s when Sheen, in a sequence of well-publicized tirades, attacked his “Two and a Half Males” boss, calling Lorre “a silly, silly man” and “just a little maggot” — amongst different issues, together with thinly veiled antisemitic slurs that we received’t print right here. After Sheen spiraled uncontrolled (“an epic drug run,” the actor referred to as it on the time, whereas additionally boasting of “successful” and working with “tiger blood”), he was fired from the hit CBS comedy and changed by Ashton Kutcher.
Bakay was greatly surprised by Lorre’s thought. “It was a thunderbolt,” he says. “ if you’re onto one thing good, as a result of it scared me. But in addition, I do know Chuck effectively sufficient to know all that this meant. I knew every part that was beneath the waterline of that iceberg. And I knew there was part of him that was able to do one thing to show that web page on a extra important stage.”
After that poisonous finish with Sheen, Lorre says it was years earlier than he might watch previous reruns of “Two and a Half Males.” “It was too painful,” he says. However time passes, and in recent times restoration and therapeutic have been recurring themes in Lorre sequence like “Mother” and “The Kominsky Technique.”
Greater than a decade after the firestorm, Lorre says he has “gotten to this place the place it’s previous information. I beloved working with Charlie on ‘Two and a Half Males.’ We did 170 episodes collectively earlier than all of it fell aside. And most of the time, we had fun. Assuming he’s in a superb place, I’m in a superb place.”
Lorre contacted Sheen’s illustration — and it seems the star (who’s at the moment unavailable to share his expertise because of the SAG-AFTRA strike) was additionally able to make amends. “I used to be nervous, however nearly as quickly as we began speaking, I remembered, we have been pals as soon as,” Lorre says. “And that friendship simply abruptly appeared to be there once more. I don’t wish to be too mawkish about it, however it was therapeutic. And he was additionally completely recreation to make enjoyable of himself. When he got here to the desk learn of that episode, I walked up, and we hugged. It was simply nice.”
Bakay, too, says he was nervous at first, given the burden that got here with this reunion. “Look, there’s a wild-card issue there that you’d be bullshit when you weren’t copping to,” he says. “There’s that sense of, who’s displaying up? What’s this gonna be? I haven’t seen him work in a very long time. However he seemed nice. He was straightforward and charming after which proceeded to placed on a clinic of the way you do a desk learn. Your first desk learn of your first episode of a brand new present, is a little bit of a hypertension occasion to start with.”
Provides Lorre, who additionally directed the pilot: “He proceeded to kill it on the desk learn. His chops have been simply so finely tuned, as if we had not missed a beat.” The script doesn’t pull punches: Maniscalco’s character calls Sheen a “fuckwad” and factors to Jon Cryer as the true star of “Two and a Half Males.” “That basically falls on Charlie being a very good sport,” Lorre says. “He’s enjoying a model of himself that has shadows of previous issues and he was wonderful with it.”
Sheen had one concern: Within the unique script, “Charlie Sheen” the character is staying at a rehab facility. “He was form of like, ‘can we not do the drug-addled Charlie anymore?’” notes Lorre, who agreed to make a tweak. Within the episode, Sheen continues to be working a poker recreation on the facility, however it’s in a room that he has rented out for the event.
“It’s a rehab that he is aware of, however he’s not there to dry out from medicine and alcohol — he’s simply working a poker recreation,” Lorre explains. “And that solved that. I wasn’t looking for to do injury to the person. I needed to hopefully take folks’s perceptions and make it comedic, not darkish.”
Sheen reappears later within the season, as he shares marital recommendation with Maniscalco’s character, whereas additionally making an attempt to pay his debt with Joe Namath’s previous fur coat. “We had some enjoyable with Charlie’s memorabilia,” Bakay says. “Charlie was nothing however gold for us. I feel this was nice for Charlie and Chuck on 100 ranges. However firstly, he was an enormous asset for the present.”
Sure, Bakay admits that the casting will even be good for driving up curiosity in “Bookie.” “Look, there’s an exploitive stage to it, which is, it’s form of unbelievable for our first episode,” he says. “However there’s an even bigger a part of it, and that is what actually is my takeaway all through all of it: By all of the carnage, these guys made stunning music collectively. And Charlie’s actually good. There was that realization of like, Yeah, this is likely one of the greatest comedy actors. And it was like watching a man in batting apply grooving balls over the fences once more.”
“Bookie” was impressed by Bakay’s expertise within the sports activities betting world, which Lorre thought could be fertile floor for a sitcom created round Maniscalco. The comic, who often sells out arenas, additionally broke out within the movies “Inexperienced E book” and “The Irishman,” and had been searching for the suitable TV car.
“I’ve all the time been intrigued with the thought of doing a present about individuals who have been off the grid and dwelling and dealing in a grey zone,” Lorre says. “This lined up with what I used to be pondering of doing, which was a personality who’s definitely not enjoying by the principles. He’s not paying taxes. He’s not any individual that has obtained a 9 to 5 job.”
In “Bookie,” Maniscalco performs Danny, a bookie who is aware of his profession could also be over as soon as California legalizes sports activities betting. (“That resonated with me too, as a result of I can’t assist however suppose that I may also be in a dying occupation,” Lorre quips.) Omar J. Dorsey performs Ray, his greatest buddy and enforcer. Jorge Garcia, Andrea Anders and Vanessa Ferlito additionally star.
For Bakay, who as a betting knowledgeable has been seen on ESPN and elsewhere, it was vital to get it proper and name out the stereotypes of the enterprise. “The widespread misperception of damaged legs, leaving all this kind of carnage of their wake, that’s actually counterproductive to working this enterprise,” he says. “It’s a really attention-grabbing line of labor. Who you belief, to do good for the cash they wager. Placing stress on folks is a part of it, however finally, the very last thing you wish to do is ready a hearth that calls consideration to what you’re doing for a dwelling.”
“Bookie” doesn’t draw back from the risks of betting — the very first scene options an A-list cameo, as that star performs a playing addict who’s seen being thrown out of his home after his money owed affect his household.
“I’m fascinated by issues like dependancy, and restoration was very a lot part of ‘Mother’ and the characters on this world,” Lorre says. “Nick and I met fairly a couple of, all all through the method. We’re speaking to bookies everywhere in the nation. They’re a breed aside. I discovered I’ve no enterprise doing that.”
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