Charlie Sheen
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New show. New attitude. New Charlie Sheen?"No one seems to want to remember," says the former Two and a Half Man star, now with a new FX series, Anger Management, referring to his headline-making rants of exactly a year ago, "they all talk about 'tiger blood' and 'winning' and everything. But no one talks about what I was so upset about."
Sheen, 46, directed his anger at the time against Two and a Half Men's executive producer, Chuck Lorre. The upshot was that the CBS sitcom – which once earned Sheen a record $1.25 million per episode – was recast with Ashton Kutcher.
Of the reaction to his outbursts, Sheen tells PEOPLE, "They just want to talk about the special effects of it all. I won't get into it now, but people need to review what started it all. The reason I stayed on it with such vitriol was … one thing[:] No one is above common courtesy. It's part of my code. Some people put themselves way above common professionalism."
As for his new series, will debut June 28, "I'm excited as hell, and I don't get excited about a lot of stuff. Children's births. Game sevens. Anger Management.. … The dialogue is really smart. I have a prison group on the show that is going to blow your mind."
When it comes to comparing this new work experience to his old one, Sheen says, "I wanted to create and environment to work in that was what my dad [Martin Sheen] called a playground of the imagination, you know? So I didn't have that for a long time. I was working in what I call the quagmire of oppression. I just knew that whole time that this process can be fun."
• Reporting by CHARLOTTE TRIGGS