By Gail Nordskog and Jeff Holder
The faith-filled movie hit of the season is THE BLIND SIDE starring Sandra Bullock as a woman who adopts a homeless high school African-American boy and gives him the chance of a lifetime to play college football. The best part about the story is that it is true!
Though portrayed by Sandra Bullock, the real life woman who reached out to the young Michael Ohr is Leigh Anne Tuohy. Movieguide® had a chance to talk to Ms. Tuohy about the criticism she received for adopting Michael and how she was even accused of doing it just to help out Ole Miss.
Movieguide®: There were a couple of scenes in this movie that I thought were kind of interesting. The conversation you had with your friends [when your friends didn’t understand your adoption of Michael, a black teenager]. How much of that was true?
Leigh Anne: Those weren’t friends by name. They weren’t Susie, Betty, Jane. They weren’t four particular friends. We kind of endured that from a lot of people. There were people who had doubts early on, but they all came around in the end. But, you know, people are going to judge and speculate and have their opinions. You just have to do what’s right for your family and move forward.
Movieguide®: What you did was right in general. I also thought it was interesting that the social worker thought you would go out or anyone would go and bring a child into their home but do it for weird gains [Leigh Anne was accused of trying to recruit for Ole Miss].
Leigh Anne: You’d be surprised at how many people thought that. People had their reasons for why, everybody had their reasons for why we did it. Of course, the people who were around us day in and day out, they knew there was no agenda to it. But, it just was what it was.
BLIND SIDE overtly stresses that Leigh Anne’s motivation for helping out Michael and adopting him stemmed from her Christian faith and Christian desire to help others. Her no-nonsense approach to life changed one young man’s life forever.
You can read the Movieguide® review of BLIND SIDE by clicking here. And you can watch interviews with the cast by clicking here.
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