Aaron speaks to ET amid Oher's lawsuit against the Tuohys for allegedly lying about his adoption while making millions off of his name.
Quinton Aaron has a message for Michael Oher amid the ongoing legal drama between the former NFL player and the Tuohy family.
Aaron played Oher in the 2009 hit film The Blind Side, starring alongside Sandra Bullock, Jae Head, Tim McGraw, Lily Collins and Kathy Bates. The film is based on the 2006 book of the same name and centered around Oher's supposed adoption out of grinding poverty by the Tuohy family.
Oher filed a lawsuit against the Tuohys on Monday, alleging that they tricked him into a conservatorship shortly after he turned 18.
Saying that he doesn't know what to think of the allegations, Aaron tells ET's Kevin Frazier that, at the very least, he'd like to send a message of empathy to the athlete.
"I don't even know what to think. I didn't get the sense that they were the types of people to do something like that -- I'm a very trusting person, though," Aaron admits. "It's very unfortunate because I like both of them. Everyone who is a fan of The Blind Side is rooting for that family...It's been such a beacon of hope, I can't even tell you how many people came to me to tell me how it changed their lives."
When it comes to Oher, Aaron says, "I definitely want to say, in spite of everything in the past, I'm praying for you, bro. I hope that what has happened doesn't diminish everything that you worked for. I hope you get resolve out of this and be made whole. I'm so sorry for what you're going through. If you want to reach out I'm here for you bro, I don't have much to offer, but I can listen... I'm here for you."
While many have viewed The Blind Side as an inspirational tale since its 2009 release, Oher has previously expressed sorrow over how he's depicted in the film, particularly the way it depicts him as a student that struggles with academics.
"People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie," Oher told ESPN in 2015. "They don't really see the skills and the kind of player I am. This stuff, calling me a bust, people saying if I can play or not ... that has nothing to do with football. It's something else off the field. That's why I don't like that movie.''
Aaron recalls the former NFL star sharing a similar sentiment when they first met about 10 years ago, telling ET, "He told me at that time, he said he liked the movie, but he said there were a couple of things he wasn't cool about... He didn't like the fact that the movie displayed it as he didn't know how to play football, made it look like he was uneducated. He felt like he had more to bring to the story than that and it wasn't [shown] that way."
Aaron adds that Oher wasn't onset while the movie was filming since he was away at college, so "a lot of that got lost in translation" because Oher wasn't available for the actor to "bounce things off him."
"All I had was the script to go off of," he laments.
In his lawsuit, Oher -- whose story was first documented in Michael Lewis' 2006 bestselling book, The Blind Side -- claimed the Tuohy family made millions off his name after the film earned more than $300 million at the box office. The book and film are centered around the Tuohy family taking in Oher and helping transform his life on and off the football field.
Oher, an offensive tackle who played for Ole Miss and later the Baltimore Ravens, also claimed that the Tuohy family never officially adopted him and instead tricked him into signing paperwork that locked him into a conservatorship, which gave them legal authority to make business decisions in his name.
Oher claims in the petition that he only learned in February that the documents he was asked to sign by the Tuohys, under the belief that it was part of the "adoption process," were actually conservatorship papers that would strip away his legal rights.
The 14-page petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court, alleges that the Tuohys used their power as conservators to negotiate a deal with 20th Century Fox that paid them and their biological children -- Collins Tuohy and Sean Tuohy Jr. -- millions of dollars in royalties from The Blind Side. The petition alleges that all four members of the Tuohy family were paid $225,000 for the film plus 2.5% of the film's proceeds.
The conservatorship was granted until Oher reached the age of 25 or until the court terminated the order, but the arrangement was never terminated, Oher's petition claims.
Sean Tuohy, the family patriarch, has called Oher's allegations "insulting," and shared that the family is "devastated," in an interview with the Daily Memphian. He added that he is "of course" open to ending the conservatorship if that's Oher's wish.
In a statement to ET, the Tuohys' family attorney, Marty Singer, claimed that Oher, prior to filing his petition in court, allegedly threatened the family that if they didn't fork over an eight-figure check, he would plant a negative story about them in the press.
Furthermore, the Tuohys denied "tricking" Oher into a conservatorship, declaring that any claims that they went behind his back to score a lucrative movie deal are just not true.
"The notion that a couple worth hundreds of millions of dollars would connive to withhold a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments from anyone -- let alone from someone they loved as a son -- defies belief," Singer told ET in a lengthy statement.
The same day, Oher publicly spoke out about the ordeal in a statement to ET.
"I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today," Oher told ET through his rep. "This is a difficult situation for my family and me. I want to ask everyone to please respect our privacy at this time. For now, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself and will offer no further comment."
Attorneys Randall Fishman and Steven Farese held a news conference on Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, to speak on behalf of the Tuohys amid Oher's lawsuit.
Farese denied that Oher has been part of the Tuohy family or had any close contact with the Tuohys, adding that Oher's "been estranged probably since for the last 10 years and becoming more and more vocal and more and more threatening."
Fishman insisted that the total amount paid out to the Tuohys and Oher since the release of The Blind Side is significantly less than the petition's alleged $225,000 payout, claiming that it's actually to the tune of approximately $100,000 per person.
"Well, each member of the family has received the same amount of money," Fishman said. "So, imagine a pie divided by five, OK? We estimate each person received $100,000."
As for Oher's claims that he "shall not be allowed to enter into any contracts or bind himself without the direct approval of his conservators," Fishman said that's "patently false."
"He's negotiated his own contract with the NFL. He's hired and fired his agents," Fishman claimed. "The Tuohys have never had to sign off on any of that. He's done that all himself."
Fishman doubled down, saying that the sole reason behind the conservatorship was to avoid the NCAA's wrath and putting Oher's NCAA eligibility at risk. If Oher, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Baltimore Ravens and played eight seasons in the NFL, wants an accounting done of the financial dealings for The Blind Side, Fishman said that would be a "simple process" the family would oblige. And the same would go to end the conservatorship.
When asked by ET if he believes the legacy of The Blind Side stands amid all the scandal, Aaron reasons that similarly to other biopics inspired by true events, the film is "bigger than the family and the actors."
"Aside from the facts, you have to look at it as an entertainment piece -- even in fictional stories, you can still be inspired and be entertained and get some kind of hope from the message. So I don't think [this] should kill the legacy because so many people's lives have been changed dramatically in good ways. Will this [embitter] a lot of people's thoughts towards this? Yes. But I hope that it doesn't get to a point where people boycott the film. I think this film is bigger than the family and the actors -- the message and the amount of good it's done over the years speaks to a whole other level of motivation."
RELATED CONTENT:
