Celebrities
Ellie Abraham
Oct 26, 2023
Spot on News - Entertainment English / VideoElephant
A waxwork of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been updated after criticism from fans and the man himself over “whitewashing”.
Earlier this month, The Musée Grévin in Paris unveiled a wax figure depicting The Rock, but questions quickly arose about the tone of the statue’s skin.
The Rock is of dual heritage, with a Samoan mother and a black Canadian father, and took to Instagram to criticise the waxwork’s appearance.
On his Instagram stories, he said: “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.”
The French museum, modelled on London’s Madame Tussauds, said the waxwork had “presented many challenges” and agreed to improve the figure, which has now been unveiled.
In a video shared on the museum’s Instagram, Yves Delhommeau, the managing director, said: “His skin tone seemed too pale, and we suddenly realised we might have got it wrong,” adding, “Painting on wax is very complicated”.
But, it seems the updated version has caused just as much controversy as the first one.
One person commented on the clip: “You guys still got it wrong … he is a Black Samoan man… your Ethnocentrism is showing.”
“Try again... add more melanin,” another said.
Someone else wrote: “This still ain't it.”
Another argued: “In no pic does he look that pale.”
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