The producers behind the Academy Award-winning movie The Blind Side have published a detailed statement addressing a legal filing by former NFL player Michael Oher, whom the film depicts.
Oher’s lawsuit against Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy has questioned the movie’s accuracy. In a legal petition against the Tuohy’s, Oher claims that the couple lied about adopting him and that the two manipulated him at 18 into naming them his conservators. Oher also alleges that he didn’t get any of the box office profits that the Tuohy family received.
Blind Side producers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove are now defending the film as accurate.
“The Blind Side is verifiably authentic and will never be a lie or fake, regardless of the familial ups and downs that have occurred subsequent to the film. We are as proud of the film today as we were when our amazing collaborators made the movie 14 years ago,” they said in a statement. “In the story of The Blind Side we saw the better angels of human nature. We saw it in the extraordinary courage that Michael Oher demonstrated in accepting the Tuohys’ generosity not as a handout, or as his saviors, but as a way through which he could improve his own life.”
Oher has criticized aspects of the movie, particularly the portrayal of his intelligence.
Several people connected to Oher’s story have commented on the lawsuit.
SJ Tuohy, Leigh Anne and Sean’s biological son, tweeted that he understands why Oher is angry but that his family made just $60,000-$70,000 on the film in the past four to five years.
