Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”.Photo:Ralph Nelson/Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett
Ralph Nelson/Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett
The producers behind 2009’sThe Blind Sideare clarifying details about their film in the wake of the “familial ups and downs” of the real-life people it depicts.
Retired NFL player Michael Oher, whose story inspired the film,alleged in an Aug. 14 legal petitionthatLeigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohylied about adopting him, manipulated him at 18 into naming them his conservators, and did not share in the estimated “millions of dollars” in box office profits the Tuohy family “collectively received” from theSandra Bullockfilm, leading to an outcry on social media.
Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, co-founders and co-CEOs of Alcon Entertainment and producers ofThe Blind Side, sent a detailed statement to PEOPLE on Thursday addressing the backlash to Oher’s legal filing that caused critics, they said, “to unfairly pick apart the movie 14 years later — some going so far as to call it ‘fake’ or a ‘lie.’ "
“The Blind Sideis verifiably authentic and will never be a lie or fake, regardless of the familial ups and downs that have occurred subsequent to the film,” Johnson and Kosove’s statement said. “We are as proud of the film today as we were when our amazing collaborators made the movie 14 years ago.”
Sean Tuohy, Michael Oher and Leigh Anne Tuohy.Matthew Sharpe/Getty
Matthew Sharpe/Getty
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In hismemoirpublished this month,When Your Back’s Against the Wall: Fame, Football and Lessons Learned Through a Lifetime of Adversity, he wrote that “there were so many good things that came out ofThe Blind Side.“However,he added, “The experience surrounding the story has also been a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past fourteen years.”
“In the story ofThe Blind Sidewe saw the better angels of human nature,” they said. “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.”
The producers continued: “Michael’s academic accomplishments and athletic achievements demonstrate this. His raising of hisown childrennow, who shall know a life of possibility the likes of which Michael never knew as a child, is the ultimate testament to Michael’s own strength and courage.”
“The Blind Sidewas a film that no major studio would make, back when Alcon financed the film in 2009. The prevailing ‘wisdom’ was that a football movie starring a woman would not appeal to football fans, it had too much football to appeal to families, and that movies starring Black actors don’t work overseas. Our opinion was that it would appeal to everyone, and, in 2009, when this country, and the world more broadly, was more hopeful and less divided — it did.”
Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”.Ralph Nelson/Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett
In aninterviewwith PEOPLE on Aug. 16,Aaron, who played Oher, weighed in on the controversy around the film, saying ultimately he held on to its positive message.
“Not all of the story is gonna be a hundred percent [true] anyway,” the 39-year-oldBlind Sidestar said. “We’re in the business of entertaining, and sometimes, there’s certain liberties that are taken from either the writer or producer or the creator[’s] standpoint to make the film [appealing] to a certain audience… in doing so, they successfully put out something that has motivated an entire generation of people to do good.”
“Even though it’s unfortunate how today’s current events are playing out between the family and Michael, I still feel like the movie itself has served a greater purpose than anyone could have hoped for,” Aaron added.
source: people.com
