Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson wax figure updated at Paris Museum; skin tone fixed amid criticism
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s wax figure at the The Grevin Museum in Paris is receiving an update, after a wave of online criticism and pressure from the movie star himself to fix the sculpture’s skin tone.
The museum says it has remedied the issue, which some had considered to be a “whitewashing” of the actor’s heritage, BBC News reported.
Johnson, who was born to a Black Nova Scotian father and Samoan mother, posted Monday on Instagram, addressing the controversy and sharing that his team was reaching out to the museum to update the skin color.
He also shared a video of comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr. poking fun at the figure, with the comic saying that the museum artists made The Rock look like a “pebble,” David Beckham, a part of the royal family or an H&R Block employee.
“For the record, 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,” Johnson captioned the video.
Museum director Yves Delhommeau originally blamed the skin tone mishap on a “lighting issue,” but the museum later shared a statement with Deadline, promising to make corrections to the figure itself.
“Dwayne Johnson is right, and we noticed it and will obviously remedy it as quickly as possible and send him new photos once completed,” said a museum spokesman.
The wax figure was first unveiled in Paris on Oct. 16 and the museum announced that artist Stéphane Barret relied solely on photos and videos to depict the “Black Adam” star.
The process was described as “painstaking,” with Barret redoing the model’s eyes three times, according to a press release.
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