Behold the new Angus T. Jones, like you never saw him on ‘Men’

Angus T. Jones, is that you in there?

The former “Two and a Half Men” star surfaced over the weekend in Houston looking part hippie, part Leprechaun and all the way different than audiences had come to expect after watching him grow up during the course of a decade on prime-time TV.

Sporting big scruffy beard and dark-rimmed glasses, the 20-year-old former child star sat down and talked to KHOU-TV in Houston while he was in town for a Saturday appearance at the World Harvest Outreach Church there.

Getting in touch with his faith while he was on “Two and a Half Men,” he said, made him realize that “I was making light of topics in our world that are really problems for a lot of people. And I was a paid hypocrite, because I wasn’t OK with it, but I was still doing it.”

Jones and his character, Jake Harper, parted ways with the show at the end of its 10th season.

“I really want to be able to come into the light because I know that’s where genuine healing is and I’ve just seen God do amazing things,” he told KHOU. He’s reportedly is enrolled at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and has been getting in touch with his Seventh-Day Adventist Christian faith. He said he’s not that interested in acting anymore, except maybe to perform in productions of some Bible-based stories.

It’s been a while since the November 2012 kerfuffle over a video in which Jones gave his Christian testimony and in the process bashed the crude sitcom that in the final year of his contract reportedly paid him somewhere north of $300,000 per episode.

“Jake from ‘Two and a Half Men’ means nothing. He is a nonexistent character ... ,” he said on camera. “If you watch ‘Two and a Half Men,’ please stop watching ‘Two and a Half Men.’ I’m on ‘Two and a Half Men,’ and I don’t want to be on it.

“Please stop watching it; stop filling your head with filth. Please. People say it’s just entertainment. ... 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, and especially with what you watch.”

Shortly after the video went viral — remember, he was still on the show at the time — he responded with a statement, saying, “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.”

Though time has passed, he’s still sticking to the message he delivered, though he did say he was sorry that the way he chose to deliver it was offensive to “Men” creator Chuck Lorre.

“That’s his like baby and I just totally insulted his baby and to that degree I am apologetic,” he told KHOU, “but otherwise I don’t regret saying what I said.”

Since Jones’ contract ran out, his “Half” presence has been replaced by Amber Tamblyn as Jenny, the late Charlie Harper’s long-lost illegitimate lesbian daughter, who became a regular on the show last October. Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher lead the comedy.

Watch the video and tell us in comments, what do you think of the new Angus? Photos of the beard actually surfaced back in August, but the KHOU spot was its first TV appearance.

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