A new documentary makes the case that Michael Oher’s rift with the Tuohy family began with the former NFL left tackle’s depiction in the “Blind Side” movie.
Produced by CNN Flash Docs and airing on Max, “Blindsided” shows people close to Oher discussing the idea that his levels of poverty and education deficiency were greatly exaggerated in the blockbuster movie about his time in high school.
“Blindsided” depicted Leigh Anne Tuohy making numerous media appearances around the time the movie came out, including one where she was asked if it was accurate and answered affirmatively.
The documentary interviewed Oher’s foster brothers, Nate Hale and Quwanda Hale, who both said that their foster mother Velus Jones provided a loving, familial atmosphere in their home.
From there, it showed the scene from the movie where Oher’s character moved into the Tuohys’ home.
He’s given his own room and said, “I never had one before,” to which Sandra Bullock’s Leigh Anne Tuohy asked, “a room to yourself?” and Oher’s character answered, “a bed.”
“That video is depicting something that didn’t occur,” Quwanda Hale said in the documentary.
Nate Hale added, “Part of the restrictions to being in foster homes, you had to have your own space. You didn’t necessarily have to have your own room, but even though we [he and Quwanda] were biological brothers, you still had to have your own beds.”
Quenterio Franklin, a friend of Oher’s from high school, also slammed the movie.
“I went to the movies to see it, and I walked out,” Franklin said.
Franklin was shown the scene in which Oher’s character drew a boat on a page instead of filling out answers on a test.
“That’s crazy,” he said. “That’s my first time seeing that. He would never do anything like that. It’s kind of embarrassing and I’m embarrassed for him as a friend. It’s not accurate and it’s hurtful.”
Before moving in with the Tuohy family, Oher lived with Franklin.
Franklin’s father, Anthony Burrow, said the movie “depicted a totally different person.”
“Sometimes Hollywood takes certain creative liberties to tell a story in such a way so that it can pique an audience,” Quinton Aaron, the actor who played Oher in the movie, said in the documentary.
“At the time we were filming I wasn’t really thinking about how it was portraying Michael. I didn’t really know him. All I had to go on was the script.”
The documentary showed a clip of Sean Tuohy Jr.’s character, a child at the time, teaching Oher about the ins and outs of football, with the implication being Oher was dumb not to know about it beforehand.
Aaron said that he was “sorry about the part I played in adding to the discomfort of the role that he watched.”
“If that was me seeing me being portrayed like that, I’d be like ‘I need to talk to somebody. Who told you I couldn’t read or write? Who told you I didn’t know how to play football?'” Aaron said.
Earlier this year, Oher sued the Tuohy family, alleging that they misled him with the idea that they had adopted him, when he had actually entered into a conservator relationship with them.
The “Blindsided” documentary depicts the idea that the Tuohys had represented Oher as being part of their family.
It shows Leigh Anne Tuohy saying in a past TV appearance that the “Blind Side” movie is “great” and that “it allows us to go around and talk about the Michael Ohers of the world that need a forever family,” and saying in a different TV spot that “families don’t have to match, it’s not about genetics.”
At other times, the Tuohy family had used the word “adopted” in discussing their relationship with Oher.
Several people in the documentary, ranging from a New York Times reporter to another high school football teammate of Oher’s, were of the belief that the Tuohy family’s communications and general demeanor signaled to them that Oher was an official part of their family.
In a September legal filing in response to Oher’s lawsuit, the Tuohy family said, “There was never an intent to adopt him.”
They acknowledged speaking about him “like a son and have used that on occasion” but said that this was not supposed to be applicable “in a legal sense.”
The Tuohy family has maintained Oher received an equal share of the proceeds of “The Blind Side” movie.
Sean Tuohy sold his conglomerate of fast food franchises for over $200 million in 2020.
Oher wrote in his 2011 memoir about what his understanding of the conservatorship was at the time.
Oher’s conservatorship was formally terminated in late September.