The Musée Grévin in Paris unveiled the new wax figure after the museum's director admitted it got it wrong the first time.
Two time's the charm? The Musée Grévin in Paris on Wednesday unveiled for the second time its Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson wax figure, and the museum's managing director admits the wax figure initially "seemed too pale."
In video posted on the museum's Instagram account dubbed "The Dwayne Johnson Story," the museum's managing director, Yves Delhommeau, explained how the museum got it wrong and the steps it made to correct it.
"A week ago, we unveiled Dwayne Johnson's waxwork. And we got a big surprise when we put him under the lights. His skin tone seemed too pale," he said. "And we suddenly realized we might have got it wrong."
Delhommeau said he wasn't surprised by the reaction, considering the movie star has 370 million followers on Instagram.
"So this attracted widespread attention on social media, especially in the United States," he said.
Delhommeau continued, "Painting on wax is very complicated. It’s a long process, like oil painting. They worked on his skin texture using photos. And we know that Dwayne Johnson looks very different from one photo to the next."
He said the museum was going to work on the wax figure "so it better represents him." The managing director also said that, in doing so, "it's been a major task for the sculptor."
"Long live Dwayne Johnson, who’s going to stop in and have a drink with us in Paris soon!" Delhommeau concluded the video.
"We found his reaction rather friendly when addressing the fact that his figure was indeed whiter than it should have been," said Veronique Berecz, the museum's spokesperson (via Variety). "Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet Dwayne Johnson so we used several photos -- but as it turns out, pictures can be very tricky because the nuances of skin tones can differe depending on the lighting on photos."
When Musée Grévin revealed the wax figure last week, it quickly drew amusement and criticism with many saying the skin tone was several shades lighter than the real actor. The man himself reacted to the wax figure, after he shared a video by comedian James Jefferson, who humorously mocked the questionable resemblance of the wax figure.
In the video, Jefferson quipped, "This is a wax figure of The Rock. You know, black a** Samoan The Rock. They turned The Rock into a pebble. They done turned The Rock into a vinyl rock or something like that. It looks like The Rock ain't ever seen the sun a day in his life."
Jefferson didn't stop at just poking fun at the waxwork; he also turned his attention to the artist behind the sculpture, saying, "Whoever the artist behind this, don't need to do no type of art. I don't want you on [The] Sims building a character. No arts and crafts. If you've got a little two-year-old that gotta make a project, let them do that on their own."
Expressing his humor and dismay, Jefferson continued, "I'm low key offended. It don't look like him no more. Is that how y'all felt when you lost The Little Mermaid?" referring to Disney's decision to cast Halle Bailey in the 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.
In response to the jesting, Johnson shared Jefferson's video on his own Instagram account with the caption, "I knew my boy @jamesjeffersonj had this Rock wax statue in his roasting crosshairs. Legit belly laughed at this."
The actor also mentioned that his team would reach out to the Musée Grévin to work on "updating" the wax figure, with a specific focus on correcting the skin color discrepancy. In good spirits, he added, "Next time I'm in Paris, I'll stop in and have a drink with myself."
Fans joined in on the amusement, with one user playfully dubbing the waxwork "The Chalk."
"He’s missing melanin. FIX IT!" one fan commented. Another wrote, "Why's he white? And when are you going to fix it?"
The wax figure's unveiling may not have gone as planned, but it certainly provided a good laugh for Johnson and his fans alike.
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