Jon Cryer on the end of ‘Two and a Half Men’: ‘This has been crazy’

“Two and a Half Men” has had a few incarnations over its long run. The Chuck Lorre show started out with with brothers Charlie and Alan and Alan’s son Jake, but only Alan remains. He’s been joined by Charlie’s daughter, played by Amber Tamblyn, and lately by Ashton Kutcher as millionaire Walden. After 12 years on the air and one epic Charlie Sheen flameout and firing, the show finally signs off with an hourlong finale. We talked to the man who’s been through it all, Jon Cryer.

What will you miss most about Alan?

What the writers got about me early on was that I was a guy who wanted some semblance of dignity but I just kept letting myself down in that respect. That they found almost every facet of every possible situation where that could happen has been great and I think they discovered something for me as a performer that I didn’t know was what I do, so I will miss that. And it will be interesting to try and find new characters that have the same sort of thing. I don’t know that there’s any character I’m going to want to play for 12 years again. This has been crazy.

Do you wish you’d taken anything from the set?

The one thing that I wanted but it disappeared this year, was, when Steven Tyler guested, they had to put his one line on a gigantic cue card because he could not get his one line. The line was, “There’s a lot of the ‘70s I don’t remember.” That was it! It’s not a long line. And for years, it was posted up, and that was the one thing I had my eye on, and then it disappeared this year. Somebody got to it before me.

Next up for you is the memoir you’re writing, right?

I have a book coming out this April called “So That Happened.” And it’s going to be about having been in the business from when I was 18. It started out weird, and got even weirder.

You have had one of the weirder careers in show business.

I have. But it’s been fun. And certainly interesting, and I’ve learned a lot. And it will be in this book!

Any other big plans for the future?

One of the ways that I’ve been able to handle the weirdness of my career is I just don’t picture ahead of time where I’m going to be or what I’m going to do. Because as an actor you’re not in any real kind of control of this thing anyway, so you might as well be a blank slate and let life happen to you.