Charlie Sheen has opened up about his past cocaine addiction, revealing he consumed up to seven grams of the drug per day at the height of his substance abuse. The 60-year-old actor discusses his struggles in the new Netflix documentary AKA Charlie Sheen and his accompanying memoir.
In the documentary, Sheen recalls a terrifying incident where he was allowed to take control of a passenger plane while heavily intoxicated. He and his third wife Brooke Mueller were on their honeymoon when the flight crew invited him into the cockpit. 'I'm there drunk, with close to 300 people asleep behind me, an angry bride 20 feet behind me, and I start guiding this plane,' he says. The co-pilot quickly intervened and put the plane on autopilot.
Another plane incident involved actor Nicolas Cage, who grabbed the intercom and pretended to be the captain, causing panic among passengers. Sheen reveals he had 'over an ounce of cocaine taped to the inside of my leg' at the time. The plane was met by armed police, but both actors escaped with a warning after the lead officer turned out to be a fan.
Sheen also describes a family intervention in 1990, orchestrated by his father Martin Sheen. The intervention included his mother Janet, brother Emilio Estevez, and even Clint Eastwood, who spoke to Sheen on the phone. Eastwood told him, 'You gotta get the train back on the tracks, kid. You're worth saving.' Sheen agreed to go to rehab, but later sneaked out to judge a bikini contest with Cage, promising the night nurse $1 million if he didn't return by 8am.
The documentary also reveals that Sheen's cocaine use once caused an 18-hour nosebleed. He says he initially hesitated to participate in the project but eventually agreed because he is the only one 'who has the answers to so many people’s questions about me'.
