Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has officially smelled what Musée Grévin was cooking.
While the Paris museum turned Johnson into a lifelike statue last week, their wax figure curiously resembled a white man and cast his natural pigment aside. Born to a Black dad and a Samoan mom, Johnson addressed the issue Monday after viral social media backlash.
“For the record, I’m going to have my team reach out to our friends at Grevin Museu in Paris, France,” wrote Johnson in his Instagram post’s caption, “so we can work at ‘updating’ my wax figure here with some important details and improvements- starting with my skin colour.”
Johnson’s statement was only the beginning, however.
His caption was also accompanied by a takedown video from Los Angeles comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr., who cheekily suggested the wax figure was turned white in revenge after Black actor Halle Bailey was cast as the lead in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” (2023) remake.
“This is a wax figure of The Rock,” Jefferson said in the video. “You know, Black ass Samoan The Rock. They turned The Rock into a pebble. They done turned The Rock into a vinyl rock or something like that. It looks like The Rock ain’t ever seen the sun a day in his life.”
Jefferson continued, “Whoever the artist behind this, don’t need to do no type of art. I don’t want you on ‘Sims’ building a character. No arts and crafts. If you’ve got a little two-year-old that gotta make a project, let them do that on their own.”
One of the oldest wax figure museums in Europe, Musée Grévin has been in the business for more than a century. While they presumably didn’t intentionally alter Johnson’s skin tone, they’ve proven their immaculate attention to detail in the past.
Previous subjects include President Joe Biden, King Charles III and Michael Jackson.
Johnson’s portrayal spawned virulent backlash on social media last week and saw Instagram users flood the museum’s Instagram page in anger and confusion. Musée Grévin has since appeared to have deleted their celebratory post about Johnson’s effigy.
As evident by his Instagram post Monday, Johnson is taking matters into his own hands. The former wrestler and Hollywood A-lister isn’t just interested in modifying the wax figure, however, as Johnson is also a tequila mogul — and just found a perfect drinking buddy.
His post concluded: “And next time I’m in Paris, I’ll stop in and have a drink with myself.”