Charlie Sheen Retracts $3 Million-an-Episode Demand for ‘Two and a Half Men’

Now Charlie Sheen is saying he really doesn’t want $3 million an episode for Two and a Half Men.

On Monday, the troubled star told NBC News’ Jeff Rossen that wanted a raise to $3 million per episode (he currently makes about $1.2 million) if the sitcom returns. “Look what they put me through,” he argued.

But later that night, in an interview on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Sheen said he wasn’t really serious.

“No, that was stupid,” he said. “I was joking about being underpaid but to come back, um, Season 10, but that’s all negotiable; you can’t talk about this stuff on television. ‘Then why did you?'” Sheen jumped in as if in response to his own question and then answered: “I don’t know. He’s on crack. Where’s Dr. Drew when you need him?”

Sheen did reiterate his insistence that the cast and crew get paid for eight more episodes that were originally scheduled to be shot this season. That was cut to four earlier this month before CBS and Warner Bros. suspended production altogether on the rest of the season following Sheen’s angry tirade against Lorre.

Sheen said the announcement Monday that WBTV was planning to pay the Men crew was just the beginning of what he wants to see happen.

“Today, just a few hours ago, we caught word they are going to pay them for four episodes,” he said. “That’s OK; that’s a start. I’m not going to stop until they give them eight. Then I’m going to work on my cast; then I’m going to finish with me.”

Sheen said that since the drama started, “nobody’s tried to call me,” including CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves, Warner Bros. TV Group president Bruce Rosenblum and Men co-creator Chuck Lorre.

Asked by Morgan whether he would apologize to Moonves — who visited Sheen at his house when the show was first put on hiatus last month — for his recent behavior if given the opportunity, Sheen said he would.

“And then I would ask him, why did you lie to me about the crew in front of … my management team?” Sheen said. “When I said, ‘Guys I can’t be gone too long because I’m worried about the crew; they’ve got families and mortgages.’ … He said don’t worry about the crew; you have our word. Him and his partner Bruce.”

Sheen also discussed the most recent “bender” — Morgan’s word — that sparked the hiatus leading to the shutdown.

“I hadn’t done any [cocaine] for a while, like seven hours, but I had this hernia thing that was popping out,” he said.

But star added that he’s drug-free and showed Morgan the results of a drug test taken Saturday to prove it.

Morgan also asked Sheen if whether he looks back on his recent behavior and feels ashamed.

“I think it’s a waste of time because I can’t change it,” Sheen replied.

He also said he feels guilty that “the perception has been I’m the guy to blame for all of it.”

“I’m on a mission right now, it’s an operation actually to right some terrible wrongs because there have been some things that have happenedas a result of you know rehab or criris management or the show’s temporary suspension thus far and I just think it’s important that people hear there truth and hear it from me because I’m at the dead epicenter of every single moment that’s been going on in this thing,” Sheen said.

As for any problems he ever caused on the Men set, Sheen said that he “was late a couple days,” but nothing more than that.

Morgan also asked Sheen if he had any regrets. For one, he wishes he had never started smoking cigarettes.

As for drugs? “Yeah, but I guess there is some school of thought that dictates we are the sum total of our experiences, good or bad, win, lose or draw,” he said. “I don’t think I would trade any of it, because I’m still alive and that’s pretty cool.”

And, randomly, Sheen had this to say about himself: “I have a 10,000-year-old brain and the boogers of a 7-year-old; that’s how I describe myself.”

Watch clips from the interview below.