BLINDSIDED BY 'LIES'

Michael Oher, the inspiration behind a box-office smash hit, says the couple who took him in never officially adopted him and used him as a cash cow 

- SIPHOKAZI ZAMA

IT’S the kind of rags-to-riches story Hollywood loves: an underprivileged yet athletically gifted black teen is taken in by a wealthy white family who help him realise his dream of becoming an American football player.

And the tale did indeed make it to the silver screen, becoming the hit movie The Blind Side, earning $300 million (R5,7 billion) at the box office and a Best Actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock.

It was feel-good fodder that packed a punch – but the story is making headlines now for all the wrong reasons.

Michael Oher, the teen the movie is based on, is now 37 and he’s claiming much of what the movie portrays is a lie.

He’s suing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the couple he called Mom and Dad, claiming they duped him into believing they’d adopted him and used him as a cash cow instead.

Their invitation for him to live with them was a ploy to sign a document making them his conservators, he says – and it was through this that they brokered a movie deal to tell his story.

The deal also earned author Michael Lewis, whose book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game inspired the movie, $450 000 (R8,5m), which he split with the Tuohys.

The couple first approached 20th Century Fox about making the movie, but when Julia Roberts turned down the role of Leigh Anne, the studio backed out.

The Tuohys then turned to a smaller studio, Alcon Entertainment, which was part-owned by a neighbour, and things started happening.

Sandra Bullock agreed to play Leigh Anne, Tim McGraw took on the role of Sean and Quinton Aaron was cast as Michael.

And that would pretty much have been that – if Michael hadn’t come forward 14 years later to tell a very different story.