The Grévin Museum in Paris, France revealed a waxwork figure of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Many have taken to social media to ridicule the “melanin deficient” statue. The actor himself responded to the pale tone, stating his representatives would work with the museum to get his skin color right.
On October 16th, the Grévin Museum – the French equivalent of Madame Tussauds – revealed the likniess. Like many of the social media critics, we have to ask what they were thinking. Johnson is half Samoan and half Black, something the museum’s figure does not reflect.
Johnson reposted an Instagram video of comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr. roasting the display. We have to agree, the figure does look like it would work at H&R Block. In the caption, Johnson praised Jefferson Jr.’s comedic roast. “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 added.
The Grévin Museum has responded to the criticism and claims artists are “already working on improvements.” The museum is home to more than 250 celebrity wax figures, including Angelina Jolie, and current U.S. President Joe Biden. In a post to the museum’s official website, the artist, Stéphane Barret commented about the effort of making the figure.
Barret described how replicating Johnson’s tattoos had taken 10 days to recreate. The figure’s eyes needed to be redone three times themselves. “The most complicated ting about realism is getting the statue to come alive from the visitors’ perspective,” Barret said.
This is not the first time the French museum has been met with backlash over their portrayal of a Black celebrity. In 2019, their wax figure of supermodel Naomi Campbell was ranked among the “most cursed celebrity wax figures of all time.”
