

The real biology teacher, Marilyn Beasley (right), found potential after giving Michael a test verbally. A fictional account of this can be seen in the DVD's deleted scenes. Unlike what we see in the movie, in real life Leigh Anne's husband Sean started paying for Michael's lunch at school before his wife encountered Michael on the side of the road. Was Leigh Anne the first one in the Tuohy family to help Michael?

At that point, Michael was still academically ineligible to play on the Briarcrest boys basketball team. The real Sean Tuohy did first spot Michael Oher when he was sitting in the stands of the Briarcrest gym, but it was during basketball practice, not Sean's daughter's volleyball game. Author Michael Lewis Interviewĭid the father, Sean Tuohy, first spot Michael in the stands at his daughter's volleyball game? Sean made an effort to get to know him and realized that he was hungry all day and that he had no money to buy lunch. The Tuohy's then 15-year-old daughter Collins was in one of Michael's classes and she told her father about the big quiet new guy in her class. I wanted to be something in life." - 20/20 "It was easy for me to say, ya know, 'I'm going to hang out with these guys and do drugs and not go to school,'" Michael said, "but I decided I didn't want to do it. By his freshman year of high school his grade point average was. During one year at Westwood High School, he was absent 51 days. Prior to Briarcrest, Michael had been to 11 schools in 9 years, often skipping class. Prior to attending Briarcrest Christian School, where else had Michael gone to school? When researching The Blind Side facts vs fiction, it was revealed that due to Michael Oher's poor and nearly non-existent academic record as of 2002, the principal at Briarcrest insisted that he participate in a home school program for a few months first to get his grades up. Was Michael immediately let into Briarcrest like in the movie? According to the Michael Lewis book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, the football coach at Briarcrest, Hugh Freeze (referred to as Burt Cotton in the movie), did encourage his colleagues to accept Michael's application. Did the coach at Briarcrest Christian School really lobby to get Michael accepted? The real coach (Hugh Freeze, right) and his onscreen counterpart (left). He noted that there were several school administrators who were concerned over instances of "artistic license" in the original script that stretched the truth. "It wasn't adversarial, there were just concerns," Briarcrest president Mark Merrill said. Through our research into the Michael Oher true story we discovered that the real name of the school is Briarcrest, home of the Briarcrest Saints.

In the movie, the Christian school that Michael attends is named Wingate and is the home of the Wingate Crusaders football team. Why did the filmmakers change the name of the school to Wingate for the film?
#THE BLIND SIDE CAST MOVIE#
In real life, Tony worked across town as a mechanic, as stated in the movie ( Evolution of a Game). "He was real quiet and especially stayed to himself." Like in The Blind Side movie, Tony took his teenage son Steven to be enrolled in Briarcrest Christian School, and he brought Michael along with them ( 20/20). Recognizing Michael's unstable home life, Tony took Michael in. The character in the movie who refers to himself as Tony Hamilton is based on Tony Henderson (aka Big Tony), who in real life runs an athletic program that mentors teens in his neighborhood. Who was the man who helped Michael get into Briarcrest Christian School? The real Big Tony (right) played a more significant role in Michael's life than his movie character (left).
