Jon Cryer was ‘gripped by paralyzing fear’ shooting new sitcom before a live audience

nypost.com:

Jon Cryer returns to the live-audience sitcom format in NBC’s “Extended Family” — eight years after ending his run on “Two and a Half Men.”“I miss being in front of people — for actors that connection is really rare and working out comedy in front of people is fun and valuable,” Cryer, 58, told The Post.“You start to feel that you’re losing your touch when you haven’t done it in a while, so when this opportunity came around I just felt like it was something I couldn’t pass up.”Cryer said he “was not rusty at all” after such a long sitcom-role layoff, but that he felt the effects in other ways.“I had forgotten how nervous I get,” he said. “All through 12 years of doing ‘Two and a Half Men’ every Friday I would be really nervous for the audience show.

It keeps you on your toes, in a way, but it’s also very exhausting.“I’m trying to get to that place now where I can do [the live taping] without being gripped by paralyzing fear beforehand.”“Extended Family” premieres Dec.

23 (8:30 p.m.) before moving to Tuesdays at 8:30 starting Jan. 2. It posits Cryer and Abigail Spencer as the amicably divorced Jim and Julia, who work hard to make their split work for them and for their children, Grace (Sofia Capanna) and Jimmy Jr.