A wax museum in Paris that was criticized for “whitewashing” a statue of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says it will refurbish the wax work.
The Musée Grévin, which is modeled after London’s Madame Tussauds, unveiled the professional wrestler-turned-actor’s wax figure last week, but it drew widespread ridicule on social media as well as from the Fast & Furious star himself. Blown.
On X, which was previously on Twitter, one user wrote, “They whitewashed The Rock,” while another compared the figure to Mr. Clean. The Shade Room’s Instagram account calls this statistic “melanin deficiency.”
Born in California, Johnson is the son of a Samoan mother and a black Canadian father.
On Sunday evening he joined in by reposting a video of comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr. on his Instagram page, saying the statue made him feel “low-key angry.”
“Looks like he works at H&R Block or something… Did you all feel the same way when we lost The Little Mermaid? I understand,” the comedian said. “It’s like The Rock has never seen the sun in his life… It’s like The Rock is part of the royal family.”
Along with the video, Johnson wrote: “For the record, I’m going to have my team reach out to our friends at the Grevin Museum in Paris France so we can work on ‘updating’ my wax figure here with some important details and improvements. Can – starting with the color of my skin.
On Monday afternoon, the Musée Grévin, which houses 250 celebrity statues, said on Instagram that its artists were “working on improving” the wax artwork. “Your feedback is always valuable to us,” he wrote.
Upon unveiling Johnson’s statue last week, the Musée Grévin wrote on its website that its creation “presented many challenges” to sculptor Stephen Barrett, who had to rely only on photos and video.
“Teams went to the gym in hopes of finding a man who matched The Rock’s extraordinary measurements. Starr’s Samoan tattoos required the painters 10 days of hard work and a lot of research,” the museum wrote, adding that the statue’s eyes were redrawn three times, “so that Starr’s face would look much more rigid.” To prevent this from happening and its warm aspect not being lost, the eyes of the statue were recreated three times. ,