The Rock spoke, and the Grévin Museum listened! After the actor publicly suggested an improvement to his wax figure’s skin, the French establishment admitted to missing the mark.
In an Instagram upload on Wednesday (Oct. 25), Grévin’s managing director, Yves Delhommeau, addressed the viral criticism. He revealed that they added the Dwayne Johnson wax figure a week ago, on Oct. 16.
“…We got a big surprise when we put him under the lights. His skin tone seemed too pale,” Yves said in French. “And we suddenly realized we might have got it wrong.”
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Getty Images credits Franck Bruno as the painter and Stephane Barret as the sculptor (seen below) in the reveal photos. In Wednesday’s Insta-upload, Yves explained the process of creating the wax figure.
“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,” Delhommeau said.
Neither involved artist appeared in the museum’s reaction video. However, Yves assured concerned fans that an upgrade is in the works.
“We’re going to work on this amazing waxwork so it better represents him,” the managing director said. “It’s been a major task for the sculptor. We’re going to keep improving it! Long live Dwayne Johnson, who’s going to stop in and have a drink with us in Paris soon,” he said.
The museum’s head of public relations, Veronique Berecz, confirmed to Variety that they’ve begun correcting the “honest mistake.” She added that white-washing “has nothing to do with” the original debut. The wax figure was re-installed on Oct. 25.
See photos of the improvements so far below.
As previously reported, The Rock humorously commented on his extra light-skinned wax figure in an Instagram upload on Oct. 22.
He shared a comedian’s reaction video to the figure’s photos before revealing that his team would be reaching out to the Grévin Museum.
“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,” The Rock wrote.
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As of Wednesday, it’s unclear if Dwayne’s team had a chance to reach out before the museum announced the pending upgrade. But as mentioned by Yves, the former pro-wrestler did promise to stop in “for a drink” next time he’s in Paris!
See Grévin’s full video below.
