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On Monday, October 16, 2023, Musée Grévin, the renowned museum in Paris, hosted the unveiling of the wax statue of American actor Dwayne Johnson. However, social media users left a lot of negative feedback. This negative reaction is due to the fact that although the monument captures the former professional wrestler's physique and look, some argue that the skin tone isn't right.
Wion News reported that the museum's artisans corrected the skin tone within twenty-four hours after the controversy. With careful oil painting techniques, the changes were done to create a figure that is a more exact representation of Dwayne Johnson.
However, fans were still not satisfied with the modification. When X (formerly known as Twitter) user Discussing Film uploaded the picture of Johnson's new and updated statue on October 25, netizens took to the post's comment section. They flooded it with their hilarious remarks and memes.
In the meantime, the said post has already received 2.1 million views.
Dwayne Johnson’s new wax figure at Musée Grévin created a frenzy among netizens
The online frenzy around The Rock's wax figure was intense. Internet people claimed that it was whitewashed. After criticism regarding its skin tone, the wax statue at the museum was modified.
The Black Adam actor, 51, even made a statement about it. He said he will get in touch with the museum to work on "updating" the wax figure. He uploaded a video and wrote on his Instagram,
"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.”
On the other hand, according to outlets like Wion News, Veronique Berecz, the head of PR at Musée Grévin, reportedly stated that the museum had no plans to "whitewash" the figure.
Rather, the differences in skin tone were ascribed to the difficulties in making a convincing wax figure using reference images rather than the real person. As per Berecz, accuracy can be challenging to achieve when skin tones are distorted by the lighting in these pictures, especially if the subject hasn't been seen in person.
The Paris-based Grévin Museum also responded promptly to the uproar surrounding the wax figure, attempting to correct the damage. They even discussed the problem of lightening the actor's skin tone. They provided viewers with an inside look at its creation in a French-language film on their official Instagram account on October 24. Their caption read,
"THE DWAYNE JOHNSON CASE Promise, we'll do better next time! Thank you @therock for your kindness and the invitation to drink We're here!"
However, as images of the new wax statue went viral, X (Twitter) users hilariously commented under Discussing Film’s X post that it looks even worse.
The first reveal took place after Johnson won the first-ever Grévin Awards, a prize chosen by fans who vote for their preferred pop culture figure to be immortalized in wax.
Wion News reported that the procedure of making Johnson's wax figure was distinctive and required casting in order to locate a model whose proportions matched the actor's commanding frame.
On the other hand, as of the time this article was written, Johnson has yet to respond to the latest version of the statue.
