Dwayne Johnson's Wax Figure Was 'Fixed' But Somehow Looks Worse
Wax figures tend to either be intricate works of artistry capturing the likeness and essence of a prominent person or atrocities that get mercilessly ridiculed online. Unfortunately for Dwayne Johnson, his new figure at the Grévin Museum in France falls into the latter category. Johnson's wax figure drew criticism for looking more like Mr. Clean than The Rock, with a complexion that was initially noticeably lighter than the actor's. The Paris museum took note of the critiques and offered an updated look for Johnson that's ... something.
Variety shared images of the new and slightly improved Rock as well as comments reacting to the online backlash. The museum's head of PR, Veronique Berecz, said of hearing from Johnson, "We found his reaction rather friendly when addressing the fact that his figure was indeed whiter than it should have been." She said that one source of the issue was not meeting Johnson to create something in his likeness, "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."
While the skin tone is now closer to reality, there's still the matter of the clothing — a polo shirt and slacks, rather than something he's more associated with, such as the beige shirts he always seems to wear whenever he's in a movie set in the jungle.
The museum denied whitewashing the actor
With a lighter skin complexion, the Dwayne Johnson wax figure kind of looks more like Vin Diesel than The Rock, which probably adds insult to injury given the infamous feud between the two stars. Johnson publicly reacted to the initial visage on Instagram, albeit with a good sense of humor about the situation, "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," he wrote.
While Johnson maintained good spirits, there were serious accusations of whitewashing leveled toward the Grévin Museum. Veronique Berecz responded to such comments, saying, "This has nothing do with it — we just made an honest mistake based on the photos we looked at." And while the correction appears to be in good faith, it's still divisive. DiscussingFilm posted the two versions of the wax figure on X, formerly known as Twitter, and people still found things to roast. "It somehow looks less like The Rock. They made him older too. He looks like he's an actual chef now and we'll be able to smell what he's cooking," @TwinsJake wrote. "Literally looks less like him now," @villainsgjh added.
It remains to be seen if the Grévin Museum will attempt another redo to try to get the figure even closer to Johnson's likeness. The museum has produced wax figures for many contemporary stars, including Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, and Ryan Gosling. Dwayne Johnson is in good company — even if there's a chance all of the other wax figures would make fun of him.