Michael Oher, the subject of Oscar-winning film The Blind Side, a feel-good movie about a wealthy white savior family adopting a talented Black football player, filed a petition in a Tennessee court on August 14 over allegations that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy fabricated the crux of his story to make themselves rich, per ESPN. The petition alleges that the Tuohys never adopted Oher in the first place. In actuality, the petition says, the couple tricked Oher into signing a conservatorship less than three months after he turned eighteen, giving them the authority to make business deals in his name. The rights to the $300 million–grossing film The Blind Side, for example, earned the Tuohys and their two biological children $225,000 each plus millions in royalties but left Oher without a penny. Oher signed a separate contract to “give away†his life rights to 20th Century Fox Studios sans payment “whatsoever,†per documents reviewed by ESPN. He claims he was not aware of the implications of the document.
Oher’s petition asks the court to file an injunction to bar the family from using his name and likeness and to end the conservatorship. It also seeks his fair share of profits and damages. “Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys,†the legal filing says, per ESPN. “Since at least August of 2004, Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and the public, generally, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to gain financial advantages for themselves and the foundations which they own or which they exercise control.†Beyond the legal battle, the film inflicted other damages, Oher writes in his new book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall. His inaccurate portrayal as unintelligent in the film wounded him both personally and professionally, becoming “a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years.â€