Last week, a new wax statue of The Rock unveiled at Musée Grévin in Paris kicked off a social media bonanza as people couldn’t help but notice that the sculpture was shockingly pale. The Rock is a proud Samoan, and this thing looked like whiter than Mr. Clean.
The debacle reached The Rock himself, who let his fans know that he’d be having a talk with the museum and suggest some details and improvement “starting with my skin color.” While that sounds terrifying, The Rock was very cordial about the whole thing and promised to stop by the museum so he can “have a drink with myself.”
Well, it turns out The Rock didn’t need to make that call because Musée Grévin was already hustling. As soon as the social media backlash kicked off, the museum pulled the statue and immediately got to work updating it.
“We found his reaction rather friendly when addressing the fact that his figure was indeed whiter than it should have been,” Veronique Berecz, the museum’s head of PR told Variety while explaining how the whole thing was a “honest mistake.”
“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 differ depending on the lighting on photos,” she said. “Every time, the sculptor has to determine the exact face and body shapes, the volumes and it’s always a very complicated challenge if we haven’t met the person.”
Musée Grévin revealed the improved version of the wax statue on Wednesday, and well, it’s a step in the right direction. The Rock no longer looks translucent, but like a lot of celebrity sculptures, something’s still not quite right.
You can see the updated wax statue of The Rock below:
(Via Variety)