Charlie Sheen Heartfelt Tribute to Chris Penn: Written ‘Out of Love’ for Sean Penn in The Book of Sheen.

Charlie Sheen Says Memories of Childhood Friend Chris Penn in The Book of Sheen Were Written ‘Out of Love’ for Sean Penn.

The actor spoke with David Duchovny at a Sept. 8 launch event for his memoir ‘The Book of Sheen’.

Charlie Sheen is looking back at influential relationships in his life.

During an on-stage chat with David Duchovny at the 92nd Street Y on September 8, Sheen, 60, reminisced about sun-drenched afternoons in Malibu when he, Sean, and Chris Penn waded into serious filmmaking as little kids.

“We just found it as a way to just kind of emulate, mimic, copy what our parents were doing,” he told Duchovny. The sons of actors Martin and Janet Sheen, and the Penn brothers, lived just blocks apart, and their movie set of choice was “the two houses that it kind of bounced between—Casa Penn and our place.”

He chuckled, adding the films were “terrible,” and to this day he “couldn’t believe how bad” the acting, directing, and everything else was. Sheen teased that the movie’s “best out-take” is partly preserved in a minibar in his mind, and a complete, never-before-seen trove of this kid-created cinema will finally stream in Sheen’s new Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen.

“We never really had what we needed for big shows,” the actor remembers. “Anything close came from Dad or from Eileen and Leo, the Penn parents. Lenny digged deep to help us. Our entire prop department was just blank guns, blanks, and fake blood.”

Sheen went on to explain why respecting those kid days—and the bond with Chris, who we lost in 2006—was so important for the writing. “A lot of the book comes from love for Sean,” Sheen shares. “I wanted Sean to see exactly what his brother meant to me. At one point, I almost brought Sean in to share pieces while I created them, but I realized no, that’s not how Chris would’ve played it. He would have come in and just thrown it on the table—‘Here’s the real deal.’”

The Book of Sheen tells the actor’s stories from childhood, right up to stepping on the Hollywood stage for films like Ferris Bueller and Apocalypse Now, along with series like Spin City and that other sitcom we all remember: Two and a Half Men.

“Writing the book was the hardest job I’ve ever had,” Sheen said at the launch. “Yet I can say—without a doubt—it’s the most satisfying job I’ve ever had.”

Sheen, who celebrated eight years sober this year, shares the highs and lows of his addiction journey in the memoir. In the book, he explains what life was like while using and what keeps him sober today.

“I still feel what I call the ‘shame shivers,’” the actor said in a recent interview. “It’s the jolt I get when a ugly memory sneaks in, and I can still feel the pain the decisions caused. Luckily, they come less often now. I call that a win. What’s most interesting about making amends is that the people I’ve hurt mostly respond, ‘Yeah, I’ve forgiven you. Now you, too, need to forgive you.’”

Sheen made it clear that the book and the linked documentary aren’t meant to rewrite the past. “The big story isn’t ‘Look at how I’ve changed,’” he said. “It’s ‘This is what really happened and why.’ I spent most of my 50s apologizing to people I hurt. I’ve owned my story, so this is me standing up and finally telling it without filtering anything.”

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