Holland Taylor is speaking out about the reason she walked away from Two and a Half Men after six years.
The 83-year-old actor starred on the CBS sitcom as Evelyn Harper, the mother of Charlie Sheen’s character Charlie and Jon Cryer’s character Alan, until her contract expired in 2009.
She explained on a recent episode of the Alchemy with Anthony Mason podcast that she decided not to renew her contract on the show after season six due to the paycheck.
“They never paid me very well on that show,” Taylor said during last Wednesday’s episode. “I was paid on that show what I had made on a series like eight years before or something.”
She added: “And I got four Emmy nominations, and they never gave me a raise. They usually do.”
The Independent has reached out to Taylor for further comment.
Two and a Half Men ran for 12 seasons from 2003 to 2015. Taylor was nominated for an Emmy four times for her supporting actress performance on the show: in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010.
Taylor went on to appear in recurring and guest roles until the show ended in 2015, which she said she appreciated due to the flexibility.
“I stopped being under contract. So, in other words, they would say, ‘Can you do a guest appearance at the end of March?’ And I would say, ‘No, I cannot,’” she explained. “I only did it if I wanted to do it.”
She continued: “I loved a lot about that show, but they were not full of courtesies. In any case, when the six years were up, I said, ‘I don’t want to be on a contract anymore, but I will visit the show occasionally if you want.’ I mean, I did play the boys’ mother.”
Taylor said that when she broke the news that she would not be returning on the show, the team told her they could not afford to pay her any more.
“I said, ‘You could actually pay me the cost of this building, but don’t bother because I don’t want to continue on under contract,’” she recalled. “And they said, ‘But we can’t afford to give you more.’ I said, ‘I’m cool with it. I just will come back as a guest from time to time.’”
The Morning Show star’s exit was not the only casting shake-up that the comedy went through during its runtime. Sheen left the show in 2011 after his public struggles with substance abuse, which led to Ashton Kutcher stepping in as his replacement.
Read MoreYoung Sheldon star cracked rib wearing prosthetic pregnancy bump on set
Pee-wee Herman’s most iconic possessions go up for auction after his death
Two and a Half men creator was told Jon Cryer would be ‘death’ of show
Star Trek’s original Chekov, Walter Koenig, dies aged 90
Netflix's New Stanford Prison Experiment reveals 'something monstrous' in all of us
Matthew Perry documentary director addresses why Friends cast didn’t participate
