“The Blind Side: The Evolution of the Game” author Michael Lewis is addressing the lawsuit against the Tuohy family filed by adoptive son Michael Oher.
Lewis, who penned the non-fiction book the 2009 film is adapted from and included Oher’s life story, came to defense of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy (played by Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock, respectively, onscreen.) Oher alleged that the Tuohy family forced him into a questionable conservatorship when he was 18 and constructed an unfair movie deal that favored royalties from the film to their two birth children.
“The Blind Side” earned more than $300 million at the box office. The four Tuohy family members allegedly each made $225,000 plus 2.5 percent of “defined net proceeds” from the film; Oher received no profit from the feature. Oher is seeking his “fair share of profits” in addition to “unspecified compensatory and punitive damages,” according to the filing in probate court.
According to author Lewis, 20th Century Fox paid $250,000 for the rights to “The Blind Side,” which he says he split 50-50 with the Tuohy family. The Tuohys have stated that they shared their half evenly amongst their family, including Oher.
“Everybody should be mad at the Hollywood studio system,” Lewis told The Washington Post. “Michael Oher should join the writers’ strike. It’s outrageous how Hollywood accounting works, but the money is not in the Tuohys’ pockets.”
He added that after taxes and agent fees, he personally made approximately $70,000 from optioning the story. Lewis additionally was offered a share of the movie’s net profits, along with actors McGraw, Bullock, Quinton Aaron, and Lily Collins. Per Lewis, the Tuohy family and himself received an additional $350,000 each from the film’s profits.
The Washington Post reported that “Lewis said the Tuohys planned to share the royalties among the family members, including Oher, but Oher began declining his royalty checks. Lewis said he believed the Tuohy family had deposited Oher’s share in a trust fund for Oher’s son.”
Lewis, who also wrote “Moneyball,” noted that in 2021, Oher asked him about doing a speaking tour to make money from “The Blind Side” book.
“What I feel really sad about is I watched the whole thing up close,” Lewis said. “[The Tuohy family] showered him with resources and love. That he’s suspicious of them is breathtaking. The state of mind one has to be in to do that — I feel sad for him.”
Sean Tuohy recently stated that his family received about $14,000 each after Lewis gave them half his share from the book option deal. As for Oher’s lawsuit, Tuohy said, “We’re devastated. It’s upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children. But we’re going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16.”
As previously reported, the Tuohy family had a film deal with CAA, but Oher’s agent was listed as “close family friend” Debra Branan, an attorney who filed the 2004 conservatorship petition and is not a Hollywood agent. Oher wrote in his recent memoir “When Your Back’s Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned through a Lifetime of Adversity” that “there has been so much created from ‘The Blind Side’ that I am grateful for, which is why you might find it as a shock that the experience surrounding the story has also been a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years.”
Actor Quinton Aaron, who played Oher in the Oscar-winning film, spoke out about the backlash co-star Bullock has been receiving. Bullock won the Academy Award for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy.
“She did an amazing job, and she was rewarded because of it. Regardless of if the role she played was fiction or nonfiction, that’s not up to her,” Aaron told Entertainment Tonight. “She was the actress, she wasn’t the writer, creator or producer. I think talking about taking her Oscar makes no sense, and people that’s bringing that up need to be quiet.”
