What was fiction in the blind side

Either you have that toughness and aggression or you don't. As the real Michael Oher stated above, he already knew how to play football. Sean Jr. Actor Jay Head, who portrays S.

The real S. He was by no means the pipsqueak that we see onscreen. Michael and S. As Michael Lewis states in his book, when racist fans were taunting him, the real Michael Oher flipped them the bird. During a scrimmage against a team from Munford, the defensive end who lined up across from Michael delivered a hefty dose of trash talk with every play, threatening Michael and calling him fat.

Like in the movie, when the opportunity arose during a play later in the game, Michael lifted his trash talking opponent up by his pads and began to carry him off the field, through the Munford bench, across the cinder track and toward his bus.

In real life, Michael got the Munford player up to the fence but not over it unlike what we see in the movie before a group of Munford players piled on top of him. Unsure what penalty to call, the refs penalized Michael for "excessive blocking", the same unusual penalty called in the movie.

The real Collins Tuohy never had to overcome taunting at school because of Michael staying with her family. Collins Tuohy, an honor student, rearranged her entire class schedule in order to help Michael.

She dropped all of her AP advanced placement classes to be in Michael's English and math classes, so that she could understand what his assignments were. She spent several hours at night helping him with his homework.

Collins isn't quite as timid as her onscreen counterpart and being seen with Michael at school was never an issue. She was a cheerleader and he played football, and they both were on the track team together Huckabee. In the movie, Leigh Anne's Sandra Bullock friends ask her intrusive questions about Michael during a lunch gathering. Leigh Anne faced countless questions from people she encountered at shops, restaurants and school events, all typically asking, "How have you handled it?

Eventually, Leigh Anne let her opinion of this line of questioning be known, "You just need to mind your own business. You worry about your own life and I'll worry about mine," she said. Yes, but in real life this happened on a regular basis, as Sean Tuohy pointed out in an interview. But if we were going to spend time with him, we'd come eat at the table. We haven't eaten at the table since he left," Sean stated jokingly. Gang members never taunted Leigh Anne. However, once when she was dropping Michael off after taking him clothes shopping, he did tell her to stay in the car like his character does in the movie.

The main gang member in the movie, Alton, is loosely based on Delvin Lane, the leader of a gang that hung around the Hurt Village housing projects. As emphasized somewhat in the movie, Michael never associated with such individuals. His closest friend from his old neighborhood was Craig Vail, whom he often told the Tuohy's about and later brought to their home.

Craig was a person Michael could trust, who never expected or asked for anything. The actual photo is shown on the right. Like in the movie, Leigh Anne says that her cousin called her to ask her about the photo. Who's the black boy in the Christmas card? In real life, Sue Mitchell spoke about her routine with Michael, "We worked hours and hours every day. He would come home, he'd take a shower and we would work until at least every night. And we did this six nights a week. Sue was a retired public school teacher and cheerleading coach.

It's true that Sue Mitchell was turned down a job at Briarcrest Christian School because she didn't share their religious beliefs. It's also true that she was a liberal, to which the real Sean Tuohy replied, "We had a black son before we had a Democrat friend! In the movie, a distracted Michael Oher Quinton Aaron doesn't see a landscaping truck backing out in front of him as he and S. The Blind Side true story reveals that the accident actually happened in icy conditions when Michael's truck skidded across the divide traveling at 25 miles per hour and crashed head-on into a big van, which was also moving at 25 miles per hour.

When Leigh Anne first arrived on the scene of the accident, she approached Michael who was sobbing uncontrollably to the point she could hardly understand what he was trying to tell her.

In addition to blood being on his shirt, S. Surprisingly, despite the swelling, no bones were broken. When Leigh Anne came home from the hospital, she delivered the news that S. It was then that Michael held out his arm to show Leigh Anne the unsightly burn mark that ran down the length of it.

He also has seven years experience serving as a broadcast analyst on radio programs at Ole Miss, in addition to working on national broadcasts for Westwood One and CBS Radio.

In , he was drafted by the New Jersey Nets but instead opted to continue his career overseas before returning to the US to be with his father during his final days.

Although it's not focused on in the movie, Michael Oher's basketball talent made him runner-up high school Player of the Year in Tennessee. The southeastern conference SEC coaches who appear in the movie are portrayed by the actual coaches who recruited Michael Oher. Michael had nothing but D's and F's until the end of his junior year. However, he made all A's and B's during his senior year, but with no more classes to take, he could at best only finish with a 2.

This was a problem since the NCAA required a 2. Regarding Michael and the Tuohy's questionable academic efforts to fix this problem, columnist Harris focuses on day internet courses that Michael took his senior year from Brigham Young University, in order to replace existing F's on his transcript with A's. Harris refers to the courses as "an NCAA eligibility trick.

Evolution of a Game. All that each course required students to do was to read a few brief passages from famous works or speeches and then answer five questions on it. A's that Michael earned in these character courses could be used to replace existing F's that he had earned in high school English courses. She was particularly concerned with how Michael was going to become NCAA eligible given that his high school transcripts still contained eight Fs. She wanted to know more about the Brigham Young study program see above question , but Michael wasn't speaking up and Sean Tuohy claimed that he didn't know the details since Michael's tutor, Sue Mitchell, had been handling it.

The NCAA investigator was also interested in discovering if the Tuohy's had pressured Michael into attending their alma mater, Ole Miss, which is similar to what is depicted in the movie.

When interviewer Deborah Roberts suggested to Leigh Anne that some people think that she and Sean took a black teen in to mold him and make him what they wanted him to be, Leigh Anne responded by saying, "Nobody has the guts to say that to my face. He would get to experience that when he returned for the second audition for the part. At that time, he would get to experience another first: visiting the sparkling city of Los Angeles. Supportive parents can be a real blessing.

Quinton Aaron learned that quickly, as he might not have even gotten the chance to try out for the part as Michael Oher if it had not been for his doting mother. She read the description of what they were looking for, noted the towering size requirement, and knew instantly that the part was made for Aaron.

Thus, she submitted his name for him, hoping that good news would come to her and her son. Intense training, lots of practice, and more. That is what it took Quinton Aaron to ready himself to play a convincing Michael Oher on the big screen. The young actor soon found himself embarking on a weight loss journey.

In total, he lost pounds in order to get in shape for the role. But Aaron considered that a small price to pay for such a great opportunity. Thus, he shed a significant portion of his body weight over the course of just three months.

To some, Sean Tuohy in the movie might look pretty familiar — especially if those people are fans of country music. That is because the actor portraying him is none other than the country music sensation Tim McGraw. Who knew that he had a flair for acting as well? As it turns out, Tim McGraw is not the only musical soul on set. You probably recognized another famous last name from the music world: Lily Collins.

Sandra Bullock was no nobody when she appeared in The Blind Side. The actress already had plenty of credits to her name.

She had starred in Speed alongside Keanu Reeves. In fact, she starred in another fairly-commercially-successful film the same year The Blind Side hit theaters: a rom-com entitled The Proposal. But The Blind Side brought Sandra Bullock more than just an overwhelming amount of critical acclaim and some major awards. She also got to see a record be broken. For the first time ever, an actress would have the spotlight to herself.

Many people enjoyed The Blind Side , from the casual moviegoing public to even the most serious of critics. The film not only made a name for itself at prestigious award events like the Golden Globes and the Oscars. It also broke a significant record at the box office.

As a result of its enormous profit, the film has gone on to claim the title as the highest grossing sports film of all time. One of the most memorable moments of the film is the Thanksgiving scene. The Tuohy family gather at a crowded table in a warm house to share an abundant meal. Everything appears to be ideal, right down to the turkey bronzed in soft glow.

If you look closer, you might notice something. Well, at least, the art buffs were quick to notice this subtle detail. In any case, the nice moment definitely captured the palpable moment of family togetherness. The Ole Miss spirit is alive and well in this film, of course. Any college football family would envy such a proud lineage.

As it happens, though, this is not the first time Sandra Bullock portrayed an Ole Miss alumni. In , the illustrious actress starred in the well-received drama A Time To Kill. Her character, Ellen Roark, a passionate law student, had also attended Ole Miss as an undergraduate student. The written version of The Blind Side actually told the story of the lives and careers of someone other than Michael Oher.

It also chronicled the life of Lawrence Taylor, who played for the New York Giants from to Sport fans definitely noticed familiar faces in the movie, especially regarding the coaches. For example, Houston Nutt plays the coach for the University of Mississippi in the movie.

In reality, he used to be the coach for the University of Arkansas. Another coach in the film was Phillip Fulmer, who once served as football coach for the University of Tennessee. As fans of the movie know, the film takes place in Memphis, Tenn. Strange…Memphis is definitely not in Georgia! It turns out that the movie was filmed in Atlanta Georgia. Sandra Bullock was at first extremely hesitant to take on the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy, for religious reasons.

However, once she met the real-life woman, Bullock wanted the role so bad that she even agreed to a pay cut to play the role. The alternative was to offer her a percentage of the profits.

Where can you spot him in the movie? His time to shine on the big screen happens when he plays a University of Arkansas assistant, standing behind the real-life Arkansas Razorbacks coach, Houston Nutt.

Before a film is released, it is often only known by its working title. Sometimes this working title is also used when copies of the movie are sent to theaters. Apparently, this is done in order to disguise the identities of highly-anticipated movies.

Rather, the 35mm print was given the very vague title of Wonderbar. Actual people involved in the story of Michael Oher made several cameos in The Blind Side and in one case, it was made by one of the real members of the Tuohy family.

In the movie, during a scene showing the first game, the real S. Tuohy is spotted right next to Tim McGraw, who was playing S. After high school, the nowyear-old S. In dramatic form, he needed a 2. One of the final scenes of the movie has Leigh Anne announcing he received a 2.

While this did happen, it's not quite accurate. Oher needed more than a 2. What is mentioned, however, is the controversy over Oher's choice of going to the University of Mississippi—the alma mater of the gracious couple who took him in.

Sandra Bullock's voice narrated the end of the movie and then the fans got a real treat—and I got teary-eyed.