Paris Museum Updates Dwayne Johnson Wax Figure with Darker Skin After Backlash: ‘Made an Honest Mistake’

Dwayne Johnson’s wax figure in a French museum is being reconstructed again after criticism due to the color of his skin.

A few days after the Musée Grévin in Paris presented Black Adam life-size figure of the actor, Johnson, 51, spoke out, saying he would contact the museum to work on “updating” the wax figure.

“For the record, my team will be contacting our friends at the Grevin Museum in Paris, France so we can work on ‘updating’ my wax figure here with some important details and improvements – starting with my skin color,” he wrote on Instagram, including and a smiley emoji.

“And next time I’m in Paris, I’ll stop by and have a drink with myself,” added Johnson, whose mother is Samoan and whose late father is black.

Yves Delhommeau, director of the Musée Grévin, said in an Instagram video that they were “very surprised” when the figure’s “skin color looked too pale” when placed under the lights.

“Suddenly we realized that maybe we were wrong,” he said in the recording.

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Dwayne Johnson’s wax figure was updated on October 24 at the Grevin Museum in Paris.

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Delhommeau said a team of artists worked on photos of Johnson, claiming the actor “looks very different from photo to photo.” He added that he will continue to improve the wax figure.

Diversity reported Wednesday that the museum had officially updated the figure, darkening the skin color before putting it back on display.

Dwayne Johnson wax figure before the update, shown here on October 16, 2023.

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Veronique Berecz, spokeswoman for the Musée Grévin, said they “found [Johnson’s] reaction quite friendly when talking about the fact that his character is indeed whiter than it should have been.”

Dwayne Johnson March 12, 2023

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Berecz addressed the accusations of “whitewashing”, saying: “This has nothing to do with that — we were just honestly wrong based on the photos we were looking at. After seeing all these reactions on different blogs and social networks, we changed it immediately.”

According to the Musée Grévin website, Johnson’s “tattoos took the painters 10 days of painstaking work and a lot of research,” and the eyes “had to be redone three times to avoid too dark a shade that would make the star’s face too hard and erase his warm aspect.”

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Source: HIS Education