The wax statue has been reinstalled today, with a more realistic skin tone, modified in 24 hours.
ADVERTISEMENTFrench museum Le Musée Grévin has fixed a waxwork of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson after he complained about it.
The Parisian museum revealed the life-size figure of the wrestler-turned-actor earlier this month and criticism was swift, with accusations of whitewashing. The Rock was born in California to a Black Nova Scotian father and Samoan mother.
Johnson posted a video of comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr. roasting the statue. Jefferson said the Paris museum made The Rock look like a “pebble”.
“Is this how y’all felt when you lost the Little Mermaid?” Jefferson joked.
Johnson replied by saying: “I’m going to have my team reach out to our friends at Grevin Museum, in Paris France so we can work at ‘updating’ my wax figure here with some important details and improvements- starting with my skin color. And next time I’m in Paris, I’ll stop in and have a drink with myself.”
The Grevin Museum accepted The Rock's comments and said staff had worked overnight to "remedy the skin tone" of the wax figure. The wax statue has been reinstalled today (Wednesday 25 October), with a more realistic skin tone, modified in 24 hours.
"We removed the figure on Monday evening. Our craftsmen reinforced his skin tone overnight and throughout the day", said Yves Delhommeau, the museum's general director. "Dwayne Johnson has promised us to drop by the museum on his next visit to Paris. Let's have a nice glass of wine together! We'll be able to make any corrections he might still want to make.”
The Grévin Museum, which welcomes 800,000 visitors a year and features more than 250 celebrities, had already sparked controversy in 2018 when it presented a sculpture - unsuccessful by its own admission - of the likeness of Emmanuel Macron.
The addition of the wax statue of the wrestler-turned-actor is the result of a competition called the Grévin Awards, launched by the museum in March 2022. Internet users were asked to choose which of ten international stars they would like to see in the Grévin Museum.
Johnson won out (totalling 48% in the poll) over Ariana Grande, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Dua Lipa, Elon Musk, Selena Gomez, Lupita Nyong'o, Chris Pratt and Margot Robbie.
One wax statue takes six months to create and costs between €50,000 and €60,000.
