Fail Better with David Duchovny

Episode: No Scars, No Stories with Charlie Sheen (Live at 92NY)
Date: October 7, 2025
Guest: Charlie Sheen

EPISODE OVERVIEW

David Duchovny sits down with Charlie Sheen in front of a live audience at 92NY to discuss Sheen’s new memoir, The Book of Sheen. The conversation dives into Sheen's notorious career, the tumultuous periods of his life, his recovery journey, family legacy, creative process, and the complex relationship between personal failure and growth. Throughout, Sheen reflects on sobriety, storytelling, and fame—offering frank, often humorous, and deeply personal insights on what it means to "fail better."

MAIN THEMES & PURPOSE

• Failure as the Human Condition: Both host and guest explore the inevitability and universality of failure, echoing Beckett’s “Fail again. Fail better,” and illustrating how setbacks can lead to growth.
• Recovery and Perspective: Sheen discusses the necessity of distance, sobriety, and self-examination as prerequisites to writing about his life with honesty.
• Memory & Storytelling: The memoir is an act of reclaiming and interpreting Sheen’s past, blending fact, memory, and personal perspective.
• Family & Hollywood Legacy: Growing up in high-profile creative families, Sheen shares the impact of those influences on his work and identity.
• Returning to Self—Gentleness & Growth: The episode is marked by themes of self-forgiveness, gentleness, and the tension between pleasing others and self-acceptance.

DETAILED DISCUSSION POINTS & INSIGHTS

1. Why Write the Memoir Now?

(03:01–04:40)

• Need for Distance: Sheen explains he required time away from “that other life, those other versions of me.” Sobriety provided not just the necessary "psychic space," but also the discipline for deep reflection.
• Family as Catalyst: Getting sober led to the unexpected: “all my fucking kids showed up…not symbolically, metaphorically. No. Like in my fucking house.” He reflects on the new responsibility that accompanied sobriety.

2. Memory & Constructing Narrative

(05:46–07:42)

• Duchovny raises a theory: “when we remember something, we're actually not remembering the thing, but remembering the last time we remembered the thing.”
• Sheen relates the process of switching between author and journalist, seeking input from family to fill in gaps—particularly in recounting his birth.
• Notable quote:

  Charlie Sheen (08:04): "On September 3, 1965, in New York City at 10:58pm I was born dead. That's how this thing starts, you know, welcome to the book of Sheen."

3. Living with ‘House Money’ – The ‘Born Dead’ Origin Story

(08:36–10:32)

• Duchovny notes Sheen’s ‘house money’ mindset, to which Sheen agrees:

  Charlie Sheen (08:50): “That's pretty much the case. Yeah. Yeah.”

• Sheen connects this to a childhood stutter, which he attributes to the trauma of his birth—a blend of fact and personal interpretation.

4. Tone & Approach of the Memoir

(10:44–13:12)

• Duchovny praises the book’s lack of vindictiveness:

  David Duchovny (10:58): “What's so interesting to me about it is it's not vindictive at all. There's no animus against any other person in the book…even yourself.”

• Sheen, with editor Amy Bell, consciously avoided exposing or settling scores: “There were no scores to settle...you have to always be in the frame.”

  Charlie Sheen (12:01): “It didn't lend itself to that…it didn't feel like there was scores to settle. There were no scores to settle.”

5. Writing Style – Accessible, Conversational, Unique

(13:12–25:03)

• Duchovny lauds Sheen’s writing as stylized, accessible, and rhythmic, comparing it to '50s slang and film noir—but also something uniquely Sheen.
• Sheen’s influences include “narration from Apocalypse” (referencing Apocalypse Now) and a desire to make the reader feel like they’re hearing stories at a dinner party.
• Sheen reflects on his distinctive spelling choices:

  Charlie Sheen (22:32): "F U K K, E, N. Yeah. And it's all over this book...Because it gets you to the word. It's setting up or describing faster…It comes out of a slingshot that way.”

• On “dude”:

  Charlie Sheen (24:32): "It just feels dude because...the ew doesn't flatten. It doesn't."

6. Early Hollywood & Family Legacy

(29:46–36:20)

• The Malibu neighborhood as an incubator for rising actors—growing up among Sean and Chris Penn, Rob Lowe, etc.
• Childhood home movies: “Super 8 filmmaking started out just as a hobby...It was just something that...emulate what our parents were doing.”
  (34:04) Watching Martin Sheen die on screen was a frequent family event, shaping how they made violent, plot-light home movies.

7. Innate Acting Naturalism & Early Career

(36:49–39:22)

• Anecdote: Martin Sheen tells young Charlie after an audition, "Just do exactly that. He's doing what it took me 30 years to figure out how to do."
• Sheen, at 19, was praised for naturalism:

  David Duchovny (39:11): "You were riveting in that scene…who the fuck is that guy?"

8. On Ambition, Failure, & Recovery

(39:33–44:54)

• Sheen discusses “failing out” of high school, not making it as a baseball player, and finding accidental success in acting.
• Desire for access and consistency, not necessarily fame or awards.
• Sobriety and writing the book as “the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”

9. Addiction, Escape, and Redemption

(49:19–58:01)

• Duchovny brings up Gabor Maté’s question: "What did drugs give you before they took everything away?"

  Charlie Sheen (49:58): “It gave me just a little bit of distance, just a little bit of a barrier from this…There was also, like, a really intense sexual component to a lot of the drugs…someone asked me the other day, do you miss drinking?…the only part of the drinking that I could navigate was the first hour…my most favorite thing in life is the first hour of drinking. Seriously. Kids, marriage, all that fucking shit. I don't care. Give me the first hour of drinking. Right.”

• On the breaking point—reading an excerpt from his memoir about failing his daughter as a parent while drinking, leading to the decision to get sober:

  Charlie Sheen (54:01–57:46, excerpt):
  “There was only one thing that felt worse than betraying myself and that was failing my children…In that car on that day, with my best friend and a child I adore, I joined Sam in those mirrors and saw a guy who was desperate to finally come home for real…Sam wasn't my final straw. She was my first harvest, not bad, right?”

10. Audience Q&A Highlights

(58:25–61:33)

• Biggest Impact:

  Charlie Sheen (58:29): "Apocalypse. Hands down."

• One Do-Over:

  Charlie Sheen (58:53): “Fucking tattoos…No shit, HIV is easier to deal with than fucking tattoos. Okay. Can't take a pill and make your fucking tattoos disappear.”

• Good Guy or Bad Guy?

  Charlie Sheen (60:49): "I'm a good guy. I think I'm a good guy. And, and, and, and good guys sometimes do some bad things. But, you know, the only way to stay a good guy is to own that."

MEMORABLE QUOTES & MOMENTS

• On being born dead (08:04):
  “On September 3, 1965, in New York City at 10:58pm I was born dead.”
• On creative flame subverted by addiction (61:33):
  Duchovny: “The creative flame that once inspired Super 8 to the silver screen, that had been reduced to a crack torch lighting up porn on a computer screen...”
• On writing:
  “Writing the book was the most challenging job I've ever had, really. And hands down, the most rewarding one.” (44:06)
• On sobriety:
  “There was only one thing that felt worse than betraying myself and that was failing my children...In that car...I joined Sam in those mirrors and saw a guy who was desperate to finally come home for real.” (54:01–57:46)
• On identity:
  "I'm a good guy. I think I'm a good guy. And, and, and, and good guys sometimes do some bad things. But...the only way to stay a good guy is to own that.” (60:49)

NATURAL FLOW & TONE

The tone ranges from irreverent and funny to earnest and searching, mirroring Sheen’s own narrative voice—full of slang (“switcheroo,” “dood”), asides, and confessions. Duchovny nurtures a casual, conversational vibe, alternating between deep questions, supportive feedback, and mutual respect for the vulnerability on display.

TIMESTAMPED HIGHLIGHTS

• 03:01 – Why write the memoir now? Distance, sobriety.
• 08:04 – “I was born dead.” Sheen’s origin story.
• 10:58 – On the memoir’s gentleness and lack of score-settling.
• 13:23 – Duchovny lauds Sheen’s writerly style.
• 22:32 – Why spell “fucking” with two Ks.
• 36:49 – Martin Sheen’s advice on acting.
• 44:06 – Writing the book as the most rewarding challenge.
• 49:58 – "What did drugs give you?"—distance, a barrier.
• 54:01–57:46 – Sheen reads the passage about quitting drinking for his daughter.
• 58:29 – Most impactful set: "Apocalypse."
• 58:53 – Biggest regret: tattoos.
• 60:49 – “Are you a good guy?”—Sheen answers with nuance.

FINAL REFLECTIONS

Duchovny closes by speaking to Sheen’s "humbly unapologetic" stance: not defiant, but honest and self-aware, bringing his full, complicated humanity to both his memoir and this conversation. The episode ultimately demonstrates that in failing—publicly, privately, messily—one can cultivate honesty, growth, and even a sense of humor, embodying the notion that if we “fail better, we’ll feel better.”