Just a few days after Charlie Sheen was roasted on Comedy Central and gave a composed speech at the Emmys, his father and brother, Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez, rolled into Boston as part of a two-month promotional bus tour for their new movie, “The Way.’’ The dramedy was written and directed by Estevez and stars Sheen as a baby boomer who walks the famous Camino de Santiago trail from France to Spain on behalf of his late, estranged son who had hoped to complete the pilgrimage. Sheen’s character winds up making some unlikely friends along the way (including a character played by Yorick van Wageningen, a.k.a. Nils Bjurman in the American reboot of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’’) who help him survive the trek.
Two men
‘The Way’ is a third act from Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez’s intertwined lives as father and son
Sheen and Estevez, who previously worked together on “The West Wing’’ and on Estevez’s 2006 Robert F. Kennedy movie, “Bobby,’’ sat at a table at the Ritz during their Boston visit, giggling and bickering like your average father-son team. Meanwhile, Estevez’s son, Taylor, 27, who’s joining them for their cross-country journey to publicize the film, waited downstairs. Over the past two years, the Sheen-Estevez clan have been in each other’s faces arguing, filming, editing, sharing, sleeping in weird places, and knocking on each other’s doors for brainstorming sessions. Estevez bites his lip when Sheen can’t remember the names of crew members and celebrities. Sheen teases Estevez whenever he gets too serious.
For a family that’s been in the tabloids repeatedly over the past year, their behavior is surprisingly … normal.
Q. Nice to meet the family.
Sheen: We’ve got three generations here. [Points to Estevez] His son is the reason for the season. Did you meet Taylor? He’s our tour manager. In 2003, I was between [seasons] on “The West Wing,’’ and he was my assistant. He was 19 at the time. We went to Ireland for a family reunion and then to Spain to do the Camino. I didn’t have any equipment or any specific plan. I had a remote romantic image of doing the Camino without anything… . We were in my sister’s apartment in Madrid, trying to figure out how to do the Camino in two weeks. She suggested, “Maybe you should rent a car, check it out for future reference,’’ so we did. We got to Burgos … and we stayed overnight in a casa rural, which is like a bed-and-breakfast in the country. This wonderful family owned the place and operated it. We were invited to the pilgrim supper that night, and at supper their daughter, this beautiful girl … looked at Taylor, Taylor looked at her, and they fell in love. They’re married and they live in Burgos. That was the seed for the whole picture.
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