Sandra Bullock shouldn’t be the first person to return an Oscar

Sandra Bullock is not responsible for Leigh Anne Tuohy. However, following allegations made by Blind Side subject and former NFL player Michael Oher against his estranged conservators, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, Bullock has been swept into the maelstrom. The actor won an Oscar for portraying Tuohy in The Blind Side in 2009. The white savior narrative was routinely criticized at the time, and one can certainly argue about whether or not she deserved the Oscar for the performance. But today, some argue that she should return the award. She is not obligated to do so and obviously shouldn’t. Moreover, she doesn’t need to be the first to do it.

No one has ever accepted and returned an Oscar

No one has ever surrendered their Oscar. After Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, the Academy felt the ire of viewers demanding they rescind Smith’s Best Actor trophy or for Smith to return it in shame. Neither happened. People don’t willingly give up major awards like that. (Millie Vanilli did return their Best New Artist Grammy in 1991, though.)

Vogue wrote last year that there are three examples of people refusing their Oscars. Marlon Brando had his award collected by Indigenous actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather. This move angered John Wayne so vehemently that he had to be “forcibly restrained,” says Vogue writer Emma Spectre. George C. Scott and screenwriter Dudley Nichols also refused the award—though in a less bold fashion than Brando. Spectre also notes that disgraced filmmakers Woody Allen and Roman Polanski were asked to return their Oscars following their respective child molestation allegations. But that didn’t stop the Oscars from giving Polanski a Best Director trophy in 2003, which was delivered to him by Harrison Ford because he fled the country after being charged with drugging and raping a 13-year-old. The Oscars rewarded Allen with four statues since the 1992 child sex abuse allegations came to light.

Bullock has nothing to do with the current Tuohy situation other than she played that woman in a movie over a decade ago. Sure, one could accuse her of perpetuating this myth of the Tuohys, but this is hardly the first time in the history of Hollywood that a film “based on a true story” turned out to be more complicated than the fictional portrayal. By this logic, maybe Ben Affleck should return his Argo Oscar or Evan Peters his Emmy for making Jeffrey Dahmer hot, too. It’s undoubtedly professionally and artistically disappointing for Bullock to have this scandal associated with her Oscar win, but she is an actor performing a role in the film. That is her job. Sandra Bullock is not Leigh Anne Tuohy and shouldn’t have to answer for her.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Roman Polanski never collected his Oscar. Actor Harrison Ford flew to France to deliver it to him in 2003. We regret the error.