The Sandra Bullock starred film, The Blind Side, has seen a litany of controversies since its release, mainly from the inspiration of the movie, Michael Oher. Today, the former NFL star claims he was put in a conservatorship and not adopted as the film claimed.
The Blind Side was a film released in 2009 and was loosely based on Michael Oher’s real life upward toward his draft selection by the Baltimore Ravens in the same year. The movie paints his ‘adoptive’ family in a positive light the entire runtime and it has been heavily criticized by Oher himself, and others, because of how one-sided the film is.
Oher told ESPN “People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don’t really see the skills and the kind of player I am. That’s why I get downgraded so much, because of something off the field” regarding The Blind Side back in 2015.
Today is a different story from The Blind Side though, as Michael Oher alleges his ‘adoptive’ family never truly adopted him and tricked him into signing a conservatorship, and “enriched” themselves in the process. Michael Oher is suing Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy to end this conservatorship, a full accounting of all profits the Tuohy family made off him, and lastly, a share of said profits and “unspecified compensatory and punitive damages” NBC reports.
The Blind Side grossed more than $309 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo, and Oher is seeking his share of that, The film also won a Best Actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock who played Leigh Anne Tuohy.
On the other hand, the Tuohy family has responded to the allegations. CBS reports Sean Tuohy said, “We didn’t make any money off the movie,” and included, “Well, Michael Lewis [the author of the book that inspired the movie] gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
The Tuohy patriarch added that the only reason for the conservatorship was due to his admission to the Ole Miss College, where he played for the NCAA. Ole Miss allegedly wouldn’t grant Oher admission unless he “was actually part of the family.” Tuohy then states, “We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn’t adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship. We were so concerned it was on the up-and-up that we made sure the biological mother came to court.”
Interestingly, the Tuohy family has declared they would end the conservatorship immediately, and Sean Tuohy added, “But we’re going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16.”
With all of the information now made very public, there will likely be more information released over the next couple of weeks, so fans can stay up to date by following the official Michael Oher X account for his latest endeavours, including his recently released book and more.
