Charlie Sheen’s long-awaited Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen, arrived this week with a mix of raw confessions, candid testimony, and emotional tributes. But as fans quickly noticed, two of the most famous members of the Sheen family — his father Martin Sheen and his brother Emilio Estevez — were nowhere to be seen.
The two-part docuseries, which traces Sheen’s meteoric rise and public unraveling through years of substance abuse, included appearances from his ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller, his children, and Two and a Half Men collaborators like Chuck Lorre and Jon Cryer. A title card made clear, however, that Martin and Emilio had declined to participate.
Sheen, now 60 and eight years sober, said he harbored no resentment. “Emilio and Dad, they fully support me. They’re rooting for me in ways you can’t even imagine,” Sheen explained on camera. “But I can’t expect people to revisit all the drug abuse and all the s—-y choices that hurt the people I love. Would I love them both in this? Absolutely. But I completely understand why they chose not to.”
The documentary positions itself as a tell-all exploration of Sheen’s battle with addiction, his clashes with the media, and the toll his behavior took on his family. At its core, however, Sheen insists it’s a message to his father — a man he once feuded with bitterly, but now credits as a central figure in his survival.
“I can’t imagine being my dad. We banged heads a lot over the years,” Sheen said, reflecting on the strain addiction placed on their bond. The series recounts moments from Martin Sheen’s own struggles, including his 1979 heart attack during the grueling shoot for Apocalypse Now. Charlie recalled seeing his father “crying” and “devoid of that dad light,” a moment that ultimately spurred Martin’s rehabilitation. “He credits me with having a major hand in helping him during his rehab,” Charlie said.
Even without his father’s direct participation, Martin’s presence looms large throughout the film. Charlie, who dedicated the documentary to him, hopes that his father will still watch it. “I think it is hard for sons to always share with their fathers what is truly in their hearts,” Sheen said. “I hope he sees some of this as the love letter to him that it is.”
The series also captures Sheen’s hard-won sense of gratitude after decades of chaos. “We came to a place that’s been beautiful. It has been nourishing. If I could put it into one word: gratitude,” he said.
While Martin and Emilio stayed away, Charlie’s other brother, Ramon Estevez, did take part, along with members of his inner circle who witnessed both his collapse and his recovery. Their testimonies, combined with Sheen’s own reflections, make the documentary both a confession and an attempt at redemption.
For an actor once defined by scandal — from the notorious “tiger blood” era to a public HIV diagnosis — aka Charlie Sheen represents something new: a man trying to close a painful chapter while honoring the family who endured it with him, whether they chose to appear on camera or not.