The Blind Side - Sandra Bullock Portrays a KD in Current Film

 by Judy Hare Thorne, Editor, The Angelos

Imagine having a famous actress portraying you in a Hollywood movie. Flattering? Surreal? “Actually it feels ridiculous,” says Leigh Anne Roberts Tuohy who is played by Sandra Bullock in the movie “The Blind Side,” which opened in theaters nationwide Nov. 20. “There’s no real way to describe watching someone else play you and your life being laid out for the world in a motion picture.”

 “The Blind Side” is the true story of how Leigh Anne  and her husband, Sean, rescued a near-homeless innercity black kid named Michael Oher and turned him into a scholar and an athlete; by that time he was so close to the Tuohys and their children that they formally adopted him.

 The story was first told in a book, “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” by Michael Lewis. Leigh Anne, an initiate of Alpha Mu-Mississippi, says Sandra Bullock’s portrayal “nailed her.” “Everyone who knows me will be really impressed with her hard work,” she says. “She did a fabulous job.”

To prepare for the role, Bullock met with Leigh Anne several times in Memphis, Tenn., where the Tuohys live and where they met Michael. She toured Briarcrest School, the high school Michael attended with Leigh Anne’s daughter, Collins, also Alpha Mu, and traveled to Oxford, Miss., to see the Ole Miss campus where Michael played football.

Leigh Anne made sure that Bullock saw the Alpha Mu chapter house as well. Leigh Anne says Bullock was dedicated to being as authentic as possible in portraying her, from driving the same cars she did to wearing the same jewelry.

She and Leigh Anne talked on the phone and e-mailed a lot, and Bullock’s voice coach worked with her for hours so Bullock could get the tone just right. “Sandy and I are very alike in real life,” she says. “I think it was easy for her to understand where I was coming from and relate to the role.”

The film has a number of ties to Kappa Delta. Besides Collins, who is portrayed by Lily Collins, musician Phil Collins’ daughter, there is Alpha Mu initiate Sue Powers Mitchell, who was Michael’s primary tutor and is played by Kathy Bates. As well, the executive producer, Molly Smith, has two KD sisters, Laurie, Alpha Mu, and Samantha, Beta Chi- North Carolina.

Collins reports that when she first met Lily, the Tuohys and the onscreen family were all together: Tim McGraw and Collins’ dad, Sean; Bullock and mom Leigh Anne; and Quinton Aaron, who plays Oher. “It was like I was living in ‘The Twilight Zone’ and being doubled,” she says, “. . . listening to Lily talk and watching her expressions. We really do look alike in real life.”

Leigh Anne says the book and the movie have changed their lives and will continue to do so in the future. “But it has not changed us,” she says. “We still live in Memphis, Sean Jr. still goes to Briarcrest, and Collins still is passionate about the same things, including Kappa Delta.”

And Michael? His stellar career at Ole Miss led to being a first-round NFL draft pick in April 2009, and he signed a five-year, $13 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens; they gave him No. 74, the same number he wore in college. The Tuohys attend all of his games.

“We hope our story will touch people’s lives,” Leigh Anne says, “This is the bigger picture: If one child receives help through all of this, it will be worth it.”

For more about the Tuohys and Michael, visit the Kappa Delta Web site, www.kappadelta.org and go to Quick Links and then Angelos; “Game Plan: Leigh Anne Tuohy’s interception led to a big score” appeared in the spring 2007 issue.