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Sandra Bullock Trends Over Controversial Allegations

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Posted on by Nathan Kamal 2 Comments
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

Credit: Warner Bros

Sandra Bullock is receiving new, extremely unwanted attention for her role in the controversial but highly successful sports drama The Blind Side (2009). Her role as real-life Tennessee woman Leigh Anne Tuohy earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, but online outrage is demanding she give it back.

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Credit: Warner Bros

This did not come out of nowhere, of course. The Blind Side was a feel-good, based-on-true-events movie produced by Warner Bros about the Tuohy family, a wealthy White family, who take stewardship of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a disadvantaged Black teen, and help him to become a football star. In the film, Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw) eventually adopt Michael, who goes on to play in the National Football League.

In a much less feel-good turn of events, the real-life Michael Oher recently filed a lawsuit against the Tuohy family, alleging that they did not actually adopt him and instead tricked him into signing a conservatorship agreement. Oher’s lawsuit goes on to claim that Leigh Anne, Sean, and the rest of the Tuohy family deliberately misled him and millions of viewers about the nature of the relationship and swindled him out of millions in film royalties.

Michael Oher taking a photo with his conservatorship guardians Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy
Credit: NFL

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In an odd (if predictable) turn of events, Sandra Bullock is now being blamed for the alleged actions of the Tuohy family, with many aggrieved online fans demanding she gives back to the Academy Award she won for playing Leigh Anne.

 

While The Blind Side was incredibly successful upon theatrical release, grossing an astonishing $309 million from $29 million budget, it was also controversial. Many critics and viewers argued that the movie depicted the Tuohy family as conventional White saviors while also heavily exaggerating Michael Oher’s experiences and lack of football knowledge.

In at least the last charge, Michael Oher himself has publically complained, stating that he was already an accomplished football player by the time he met Leigh Anne Tuohy.

While Sandra Bullock is being excoriated by some Blind Side viewers, she is also being defended by an equal amount of people on the other side, who assert that the actress had no reasonable cause to believe she was portraying the matriarch of a family of swindlers.

Among them, her Blind Side co-star Quinton Aaron has come to her defense, telling the New York Post,”Sandra [Bullock] did nothing wrong. That’s my girl, and she is going through a really tough time right now…I really feel like they should leave her alone and stop trying to come at her.”

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The “really tough time” Quinton Aaron is referencing is the very recent death of Sandra Bullock’s longtime partner, Bryan Randall, who passed away after a three-year struggle with ALS.

Michael Oher’s lawsuit against the Tuohy family is ongoing, but hopefully, people can take a moment to at least extend some grace toward Sandra Bullock in a painful time.

Should Sandra Bullock return the Oscar she won for The Blind Side? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Nathan Kamal

Nathan Kamal is a Chicago-based writer and comic, who enjoys cooking, hanging out with his cat, and seeing as many movies as possible.

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