-Sheen's X-Rated Journey


In Rated X, their new movie which begins airing on Showtime May 13th, brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez play Jim and Artie Mitchell legendary porn-titan brothers who produced the 1972 adult classic Behind the Green Door. As it turned out, making the film was a turning point for Sheen, 34, and Estevez, 38, who had barely spoken in a decade./FONT>

"We were 10 years where we weree estranged because he was an addict and I wasn't." says Estevez. "I had to take a position with him where it was like, "You're lifestyle's not my lifestyle, I can't related."

In some ways, Sheen's lifestyle had come to mirror that of Artie Mitchell, the man he plays in the film. Like Artie, Sheen was involved with porn actress (Ginger Lynn and Brittany Ashland, the latest relationship ending with Sheen pleading no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge) and spent years battling cocaine and alcohol addiction.

But while Artie Mitchell's addiction spiraled out of control, and his life ended brutally.

Jim Mitchell believed his brother had become a hopeless and dangerous addict, shot him dead in 1991 and served three years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. Sheen managed to get clean and reconciled with his brother. The parallels...and the contrasts are what made the Mitchells' odyssey so appealing to Estevez, who also directed the film. Having heard about the brothers several years ago, Estevez decided in 1999 to turn their life stories into a film, just agout a year after Sheen had finally kicked his drug habit.

Sheen was hospitalized for an overdose in May 1998, while on probation for the battery charge. After Charlie walked out of a rehabiliation program, his father, Martin Sheen, brought his drug positive blood-test results to Judge Lawrence Mira who ordered Charlie to attend another rehab program and threatened jail time if he was caught using again. Sheen says he has been sober ever since.

"When (Charlie) had a year of sobriety, he decided to do the film, which I thought was brave." says Estevez. "And then it was like, 'Oh my God, what are we getting ouselves into?"

CENTER> Estevez recalls doing a scene on the first day of shooting in which " I had a straw in his nose, a fake joint in his mouth, a bottle of vodka in his lips and a naked girl in his lap. He looked at me and said; 'Brother, there are no coincidences.'"

Sheen whose is set to replace Michael J. Fox on Spin City next fall says reliving those experiences was "hard but not impossibel. "I didn't leave the set thinking look what I'm missing. I left the set every day reminded why I didn't want to live like that anymore."

No one is happier to see the changes than Papa Sheen who cheered his sons on at Rated X's May 5 premiere in Beverly Hills. "It's hard to watch knowing what Charlie went through." the West Wing star said. "But it's a magnificent herocic performance. You can only do that when you own that journey."


Written by William Keck. Typed by amye for PRESENTING...EMILIO!!