Apparently, Michael Oher doesn’t care for the movie based on the Michael Lewis book about his transition from impoverished teen to DI football phenom:
Baltimore tackle Michael Oher has been invited to appear on Oprah twice. He’s been invited to the Academy Awards. He’s been asked to be in the audience at the ESPYs.
No, no, no and no.
Seems Oher is not very happy with how he was portrayed in The Blind Side movie. He thinks he was made to look like a simpleton who knew nothing about football before he was picked up off the Memphis streets and taken to live with a wealthy family. Seems he has no interest in furthering that public image, so he’s concentrating on one thing: being a football player.
via Brad Childress has no regret after begging Brett Favre to return – Peter King – SI.com.
This reminded me of the AV Club review of the film:
Sports movies have a long, troubled history of well-meaning white paternalism, with poor black athletes finding success through white charity. But The Blind Side, based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book, finds a new low. In the character of “Big Mike” (real life success story Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron), a poor, undereducated teenager later groomed into a top-tier offensive lineman, the film suggests a gentle, oversized puppy in need of adoption. (The family that takes him in literally picks him up from the streets during a rainstorm, like a stray. All that’s missing are the children pleading, “Mom, can we keep him?”) Given his background and 0.6 GPA, there’s no question that Oher was well behind his peers, but casting him as a big-hearted simpleton makes him seem subhuman, more mascot than man.