Catherine Shuttleworth
Oct 24, 2023
Musée Grévin
A waxwork of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is being remade after it was criticised for "whitewashing" the actor.
The Musée Grévin, modeled off London's Madame Tussauds, unveiled the wax figure last week, attracting criticism and ridicule on social media, primarily due to the skin colour of the statue.
Johnson, who is the son of a Samoan mother and Black Canadian father, wrote on his Instagram story "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.
"And next time I'm in Paris, I'll stop in and have a drink with myself."
On social media the jokes kept pouring in, with fans of the 51-year-old joking that the statue was more like 'The Paper' instead of 'The Rock', a ring name acquired during his time as a wrestler.
Fans also joked that the wax figure looked more like Johnson's Fast & Furious co-star Vin Diesel:
On Monday afternoon, Musée Grévin, said on Instagram that its artists were "working on improving" the waxwork. "Your feedback is always valuable to us," they wrote.
Museé Grévin Instagram statementInstagram / Musée Grévin
The Musée Grévin's website shared that creating the statue had "presented many challenges" to sculptor Stéphane Barret, who had to rely on photos and videos alone.
"The teams went to gyms in the hope of finding a man who matched The Rock's extraordinary measurements. The star's Samoan tattoos took the painters 10 days of painstaking work and a lot of research," the museum also wrote.
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