Aside from being known to possess tiger’s blood and the DNA of Adonis, Charlie Sheen is also Latino via his paternal grandparents emigrating from Spain. For his entire movie career, and even before earning recognition, Charlie Sheen has kept his birth given name out of the public spotlight until now.
Born Carlos Irwin Estévez, Charlie Sheen like his father, Martin Sheen (who was born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez) took on the stage name that we all know today. Sheen didn’t shed his Latino name out of disrespect but was a decision due to simple child innocence which stuck.
In the past, Sheen has discusses his lack of connection to being Latino by stating how he doesn’t “wake up feeling Latino. I’m a white guy in America…I wish I spoke more Spanish. I’m sure I can learn, but there hasn’t been a lot of time lately. It was never a part of my life growing up. My parents never infused it into our household.”
With a lack of exposure to Latino culture, Sheen also explained his name change was due to confusion between him and an Uncle. “We would both respond to the name Carlos, so I changed my name,” So at age 4, Carlos became Charlie. And now 43 years later, Charlie will become Carlos once again.
For his next film, Sheen will be going by Carlos Estévez in Robert Rodriguez’s shoot-em up action film “Machete Kills” as the film’s President of the United States. The name change has brought up some questions as to why Sheen has suddenly reverted back to his birth given name.
Some reports state Sheen is doing the name change to separate himself from the controversy his generated these past view years.
The once “Two and a Half Men” star left the CBS show under some unsavory conditions with the show’s production and network which resulted in his Casanova-esque character being killed-off so that he may never return. However, Sheen media attention past may not be the true purpose for becoming an Estévez again.
Known for utilizing the Latino culture in all of his film work, Sheen’s new name billing may simply be a doing of Robert Rodriguez who simply wants to utilize the power of ethnocentricity by highlighting the majority Latino cast members in the film.
Machete Kills is the sequel to the 2010’s “Machete” inspired by the faux-trailers seen in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s 2007’s “Grindhouse”. Danny Trejo in the title role as the machete-wielding ex-Federale agent aptly named Machete Cortez. Joining Trejo and Estévez are Mel Gibson as Luther Voz, Jessica Alba as Sartana Rivera, Michelle Rodriguez as Luz/Shé, and Sofía Vergara as Madame Desdemona.
Machete Kills will be hitting theatres this upcoming September.
