(CBS/Landov)
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Now that’s biting the hand that feeds you.
The “half man” on the show “Two and a Half Men” is blasting his CBS sitcom as “filth” — and says he doesn’t even want to be on it anymore.
But that hasn’t stopped Angus T. Jones, 19, from cashing his $350,000 weekly paycheck — nearly $8 million per season.
“If you watch ‘Two and a Half Men,’ please stop watching ‘Two and a Half Men,’ ” Jones says in a rambling 20-minute video interview posted on Forerunner Chronicles, a religious Web site.
“Jake from ‘Two and a Half Men’ means nothing. He’s a nonexistent character,” Jones says of his TV alter ego. “I’m on ‘Two and a Half Men,’ and I don’t want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth.”
Jones has played Jake Harper on “Men” since the show’s 2003 debut and knows a thing or two about controversy.
He was an eyewitness to the public meltdown of former “Men” star Charlie Sheen, who was fired in March 2011 after blasting series creator Chuck Lorre, CBS and producer Warner Bros. TV in a series of expletive-filled rants.
It’s unclear exactly when Jones taped the interview, which cuts between him talking on the Warner Bros. lot in LA — apparently in his trailer — sitting on a stool in a yard and driving in his car.
“People say it’s just entertainment,” Jones says in the interview, conducted by Forerunner Chronicles founder Christopher Hudson. “Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you, you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to television, especially with what you watch on television. It’s bad.
“You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that,” he says of “ Men.” “I know I can’t. I’m not OK with what I’m learning — what the Bible says — and being on that television show.”
Jones, who has never roiled the waters before, talks in the interview about the path that led him to his religious awakening and how he ended up at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Angeles.
“God told me personally that he wanted me to get it together . . . and I started to really get into reading the Bible and started to look for a church . . . with an all-black congregation. I was looking for a black gospel theme,” he says.
“A friend of a friend, whose name is Moses, told me about this church, and the first day I went there . . . the message the pastor was preaching that day was tailormade for me — everything about the message was me.”
It’s unclear if Jones’ comments will impact his status on “Men,” which returned this fall for its 10th season and its second with Ashton Kutcher, who replaced Sheen.
Jones’ Jake Harper joined the Army at the end of last season.
Jones, Kutcher and Jon Cryer all signed one-year deals to return this season — which many expect to be the show’s swan song.
Jones’ publicist released a statement to Deadline this evening where the actor tried to calm the firestorm that erupted following his video going viral.
“Without qualification, I am grateful to and have the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people on Two and Half Men with whom I have worked over the past ten years and who have become an extension of my family,” the statement said.
“I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed. I never intended that.”