Actor nearly replaced Charlie Sheen on ‘Two and a Half Men’ — then walked away

Before Ashton Kutcher became the billionaire paying the bills on “Two and a Half Men,” Hugh Grant nearly landed one of television’s most lucrative jobs.

The proposed arrangement included a character tailored to his talents, a four-day workweek and $750,000 per episode. What it apparently lacked was the one thing Grant wanted before committing: a script that made him comfortable saying yes.

According to series co-creator Chuck Lorre’s memoir, Sitcom: A Memoir, negotiations advanced to the point where Grant was about to sign. Instead, the actor left the room, became unreachable and ultimately withdrew.

It was an expensive opportunity to decline. At the proposed rate, a 24-episode season would have paid $18 million.

For Lorre, it was also another complication in an already turbulent effort to rescue a hit show.

Charlie Sheen’s departure in 2011 followed a production shutdown during the eighth season and a highly publicized feud with Lorre. CBS and Warner Bros. were left trying to preserve an enormously successful sitcom without the actor who had anchored it for eight seasons.

The challenge was bigger than finding someone who could deliver a punch line. The replacement needed enough star power to persuade viewers to return — and enough personality to avoid becoming an imitation of Charlie Harper.

Grant seemed a promising possibility.

Lorre and fellow creator Lee Aronsohn met with him several times and developed sample scenes for a character built around his particular comic strengths. Grant’s combination of charm, vanity, awkwardness and polished sarcasm offered obvious possibilities opposite Jon Cryer’s perpetually needy Alan Harper.

A wealthy, exasperated Englishman discovering that Alan apparently came with the Malibu house could have supplied plenty of material.

But Grant had reservations about the mechanics of American sitcom production, particularly performing before a live studio audience.

Lorre writes that he was willing to eliminate the audience and use recorded laughter to accommodate him. The producer treated his own willingness to abandon the format as evidence of how badly he wanted the deal.

Grant offered another explanation when discussing the opportunity with Howard Stern in 2016: He was uncomfortable committing without a script.

The actor described the money as “stratospheric” but said he was “too scared to sign up without a script.”

Those accounts are not necessarily contradictory. Sample scenes can demonstrate a character’s voice without showing an actor how an entire episode — or a continuing series — will work. Grant could appreciate the pitch and still hesitate over the commitment.

Lorre’s account places the collapse at the final stage of negotiations. After Grant departed, a representative informed the producers that he no longer wanted to participate.

The producer says he has not spoken with Grant since, although he respects the decision. His suggestion that Grant ultimately considered the role a poor career move remains Lorre’s interpretation.

The search then turned toward Kutcher after a suggestion from then-CBS Chairman Les Moonves.

Kutcher joined the ninth season as Walden Schmidt, a technology billionaire who bought Charlie’s house after the character’s apparent death. Alan remained in residence, maintaining one of the show’s most durable traditions: financial security through proximity to somebody else’s bank account.

Walden represented a substantial departure from Charlie.

Sheen’s character was a cynical, hard-drinking bachelor who generally regarded commitment as something to avoid. Kutcher’s character was younger, emotionally vulnerable and looking for love after a failed marriage. Both could be immature, but Walden’s foolishness had a more innocent quality.

That change divided viewers. Fans who considered Sheen indispensable were not necessarily won over by a replacement with a different personality and comic rhythm.

Still, Kutcher stayed for four seasons, and the series continued until 2015. Lorre has credited his arrival with bringing renewed energy and positivity to the production.

Whether Grant would have made a better successor is impossible to settle. His casting might have preserved more of the original show’s sophisticated cynicism, while Kutcher gave the series a clearer break from its former star.

Grant chose uncertainty over a spectacularly predictable paycheck. Kutcher took the job, and “Two and a Half Men” found another four years of life.

Alan, against all reasonable expectations, continued to have a place to stay.