If you are unfamiliar with the film, it is supposed to be based on Michael Oher’s real-life underdog narrative, which originally appeared on our screens in 2009.
Now, 14 years later, Oher has petitioned a Tennessee court, alleging that a crucial story element of the film, notably his adoption, was “concocted by the family to enrich themselves at his expense.”
The sports film is based on the 2006 novel of the same name, in which a black youngster, Oher, portrayed by Quinton Aaron, is in and out of school and homeless.
Leigh Oher is taken in by Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her husband Seann (Tim McGraw), who ultimately become his legal guardians, and he goes on to have a great NFL career and a Super Bowl triumph.
The football film has been regarded as troublesome by many, but the newest criticism revolves around the Tuohy family.
Oher claimed that the adoption never happened and that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy merely ‘tricked him’ into signing a form that made them his conservators.
As a result, the duo had legal power to do business in his name.
The Tuohys and their two biological children received ‘$225,000’ plus ‘2.5%’ of the film’s ‘specified net earnings’.
The Oscar-winning film allegedly grossed more than $300 million at the box office, but Oher earned nothing, according to ESPN on Monday (August 14), despite the fact that the tale ‘would not have happened without him’.
The deception of Michael’s adoption is one upon which co-conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have benefited themselves at the cost of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher, according to a legal document from Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court.
Michael Oher learned this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February 2023, when he found that the Conservatorship to which he agreed on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact left him with no familial relationship with the Tuohys.
The petition then asks the probate court to revoke the Tuohys’ conservatorship over Oher and to issue an injunction prohibiting the family from using his name and picture.
In addition, the petition demands financial restitution for money that the athlete never earned from the blockbuster smash-hit The Blind Side.
“Since at least August of 2004, Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and the public in general, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to gain financial advantages for themselves and the foundations that they own or control,” the petition continues.
“All monies made in said manner should, in all conscience and equity, be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher.”