Charlie Sheen Got To Choose Who Played His Father In Wall Street, So He Picked His Actual Dad

1987's "Wall Street" was released in theaters two months after Black Monday: the day the real stock market took a dive. In the timely film, Charlie Sheen ("Young Guns," "The Rookie") plays Bud Fox, a young stockbroker who admires underhanded corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Bud pursues Gekko as a client with non-stop calls and contraband Cuban cigars, and when he finally makes contact, his entire life changes. Under the influence of Gekko, who famously utters the line "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good," Bud does some terrible things, including offering up insider information that could destroy his blue-collar father, played by Charlie Sheen's real-life dad, Martin Sheen ("The West Wing," "Apocalypse Now"). 

The film, which won Douglas an Academy Award for Best Actor, was directed by Oliver Stone ("Platoon," "JFK"), who allowed the young actor to pick the person who would play his father in the film. He was given the choice between Jack Lemmon ("Some Like It Hot," "The Odd Couple") or his own pop — probably the best option if you're going to continue to have peace at the holiday dinner table. It doesn't hurt that Martin Sheen is also a great actor.

According to the DVD extra feature "Money Never Sleeps: The Making of Wall Street" (vial Mental Floss), Charlie Sheen (who had worked with Stone previously on "Platoon") said, "It was interesting having my dad play my dad." He said that when Stone gave him the options of Lemmon and Stone the elder, he replied, "Oh, Jack Lemmon's a genius, but my dad's my dad, and he's kind of a genius, too." (According to a 2012 Vanity Fair article, "Wall Street" was a tribute to Stone's own father, who was a stockbroker during the Great Depression.) 

In a 2022 Role Recall video from Yahoo!, Martin Sheen commented on getting cast in "Wall Street" because of his son. He said: 

"Charlie put the bug in [Stone's] ear — wouldn't it be a good idea if my old man actually played my old man in the movie, and Oliver thought that that might work. He knew ... what I did for a living ... I guess he figured he didn't have to go that far. But yeah, that was a wonderful experience. I've always been grateful to Oliver Stone for putting Charlie and I together like that because it was a very, very, very special time to work with Charlie."

Not only did they act together on "Wall Street," but they made a joke about it in the 1993 comedy "Hot Shots! Part Deux." As their characters pass each other in boats, they yell, "I loved you in 'Wall Street."  

Martin Sheen has actually worked with all of his children. He acted alongside his son Emilio Estevez in "The War at Home," "In the Custody of Strangers," and "The Way," which Estevez also wrote and directed. He's worked with his son Ramón Estevez and daughter Renée Estevez in the past. He even showed up as Charlie's father in episodes of both "Spin City" and "Anger Management." Charlie Sheen had lovely things to say about his dad's performance in the latter, in a 2013 interview with CNN. He said, "He's fabulous, and he's really funny, and he doesn't even know it. Doesn't know how good he is on the show." 

Martin Sheen also spoke again about working with his kids in a 2012 interview with a Denver, Colorado, ABC station for the Boulder International Film Festival. He called the experiences "beyond joy" and "euphoria." He said, "You work with your kids ... you know where all the buttons are. You helped build that machine. But you forget, they know your machine as well. It goes both ways. They're the most satisfying experiences."

The Sheens also played father and son in "No Code of Conduct." There is a typecasting joke in here somewhere, but honestly, the whole thing is just too sweet to laugh about. 

"Wall Street" is currently streaming on Hulu.