Charlie Sheen recently recalled the day he received the news that Tom Cruise was taking over his role in the 1989 movie, Born on the Fourth of July. He said it was a “big deal” and it had a “betrayal factor” to it.
Charlie Sheen recalls his reaction to losing Born on the Fourth of July to Tom Cruise
Charlie Sheen, known for the popular sitcom Two and a Half Men, recounted the day when his brother, Emilio Estevez, broke the news about Tom Cruise taking over his role in Ron Kovic’s biopic Born on the Fourth of July.
During an interview on Graham Bensinger’s In Depth With Graham episode, Sheen recalled, “Emilio, he calls me. He says, ‘Hey, man. You sitting down?’ And I think somebody died, right? I’m like, ‘No, what’s going on?” He says, ‘Cruise is doing Born on the Fourth.”
“I love that Emilio thought that I needed to be seated to get news he thought was going to make me faint,” the Hot Shots star continued. “I mean, what are we doing here? It’s a movie.”
Though Sheen took the news better than his brother had anticipated, Sheen still said, “It’s a big deal. Well, it was also the betrayal factor of it. So I was like, ‘OK, all right.’” Acknowledging Oliver Stone, the director’s perspective, the Major League actor added, “You know, Oliver’s been a fan of Tom’s for a long time. It’s a different movie if Tom does it than if I do it.”
“You can’t lose something you never had,” The Book of Sheen author admitted. “I didn’t sign a contract. There was a handshake.”
However, Charlie Sheen spoke about his active participation in the early days of the movie when it was still a concept. “We had meetings about it, and we had a dinner with Ron Kovic. And then I stopped hearing from him,” the Wall Street actor explained. “We stopped talking about it, and I reach out to Oliver, and I’m told that he’s in Cuba. Whatever. This is like 1988 or ’89, right? I’m like, ‘OK, well, tell him I’m looking for him.”
Years later, when Sheen crossed paths with the director, he confronted him about it. “He was like, ‘I just felt like you didn’t have any passion for it. I felt like you lost interest,’” Sheen recalled. “I was like, ‘Well, I didn’t see you. How do you know how much passion I lost or interest that evaporated if we never talked about it again?”
Nonetheless, Charlie Sheen admitted that Cruise’s work in the movie was “brilliant,” adding that he “should have won the Oscar.”
While Tom Cruise did earn an Academy Award nomination for his role in the movie, he didn’t win the award that year. However, the movie won Oscars for Best Director and Best Film Editing.
Sheen ended on a positive note, saying, “I don’t know if Major League happens if I do Born on the Fourth,” pointing to his highly successful sports comedy movie.
Originally reported by Harsha Panduranga on Comingsoon.
