NFL star Michael Oher has said he is “so angry mentally” with the fallout from the film The Blind Side and his subsequent conservatorship battle.
The former Super Bowl winner and his adopted family rose to fame following the release of the 2009 film, starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. The movie was based on Oher’s life and charted his rise to fame as a football star with the help of the Tuohy family, who took him in when he was homeless.
However, last year, Oher filed a lawsuit claiming he was under the impression that he had been adopted by the Tuohy family, only to later learn that rather than an adoption, it was in fact a conservatorship agreement.
The football star signed the agreement when he was 18, which he claims allowed the Tuohy family to control his finances. The lawsuit accuses the family of “tricking him” into signing the agreement, alleging they used the film as a way of making millions from him.
In response, the Tuohy family claimed that Oher was demanding millions of dollars from them, and described his claims as “hurtful and absurd”, claiming it was “transparently ridiculous” that they had tried to profit off him.
A judge dissolved the conservatorship last year.
Now, Oher has spoken for the first time about the controversy, telling the New York Times he was “hurt” by the family and felt he had “everything stripped from” him.
He added that the family treated him well and provided opportunities for him, but said that he felt his portrayal in the film was “inaccurate”, but that it came to define him.
“It’s hard to describe my reaction,” Oher said about his reaction to seeing the film for the first time. “It seemed kind of funny to me, to tell you the truth, like it was a comedy about someone else. It didn’t register.”
He went on to explain that the biggest challenge from the fallout of the film was that it misrepresented his intelligence. “The NFL people were wondering if I could read a playbook,” he said.
“I started seeing stuff that I’m dumb. I’m stupid. Every article about me mentioned The Blind Side, like it was part of my name.”
“If my kids can’t do something in class, will their teacher think, ‘Their dad is dumb — is that why they’re not getting it?’” he continued.
He said he feels “so angry mentally” about the situation, adding: “I want to be the person I was before The Blind Side, personality-wise,” he said. “I’m still working on it.”
The Blind Side, based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis, was a major box office success and earned a Best Actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock.