Michael Oher, Subject of The Blind Side, Sues Family Who Took Him In

Movies

Remember The Blind Side, the hokey family movie about a well-to-do couple who adopt a high school kid and help him become a football star, the one that won Sandra Bullock an Oscar? (Have you noticed the Academy loves giving the Actress awards to overacted performances?) It’s unexpectedly in the news again. That film was based on a true story, and Michael Oher, the real football star, is suing the Tuohy family that took him in. According to Deadline, Oher claims that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy lied about adopting him and got him to sign over conservatorship to them after he turned eighteen, which allowed them to “make deals in his name.” Oher says that The Tuohy’s used their conservatorship to make money off of him, including keeping the profits of The Blind Side and the book by Michael Lewis that inspired it without sharing them with him. The Tuohy’s, through their lawyer, counterclaim that none of this is true, that Oher has been trying to shake them down for “an eight-figure windfall” but has been unsuccessful in finding an attorney who would take his case (because the evidence disproves his claim, according to the Tuohy’s lawyer) until now.

It puts a damper on that uplifting family drama starring America’s sweetheart Sandra Bullock, doesn’t it? Obviously, I have no idea who’s right or what the outcome will be, but it’s weird the way movies you never thought would be relevant again suddenly return to the news cycle for out-of-left-field reasons like this. I wonder if The Blind Side will suddenly become the most streamed movie in the country. It’s nothing I’d want to revisit; it’s fine, but it’s one of those films built entirely around the trailer (with the money line that drew in every soccer mom in America: “You threaten my son, you threaten me!”), and you know every single story beat before you press play. Although it’s certainly better than the current number one movie on Netflix, Heart of Stone. However, it’s kind of fascinating how the real story behind a sickly sweet movie like The Blind Side is a lot darker and more dysfunctional, no matter who’s telling the truth.