A wax museum in Paris criticized for “whitewashing” a statue of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is going back to the drawing board. Johnson himself criticized the statute’s obvious skin color lightening.
Johnson wrote: “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.”
The Musée Grévin, which is modeled on London’s Madame Tussauds, unveiled the wax figure last week. The figure swiftly attracted widespread online scrutiny.
California-born Johnson is the son of a Samoan mother and a Black Canadian father.
On Sunday, he reposted a video of comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr. saying the statue made him feel “low-key offended”.
“It looks like he works at H&R Block or something … Is this how y’all felt when you lost The Little Mermaid? I understand,” the comedian said. “It looks like The Rock ain’t never seen the sun a day in his life … It looks like The Rock is part of the royal family.”
Museum says artist “had to rely on photos and videos”
According to the museum’s site, “After Dwayne Johnson was chosen at the first edition of the Grévin Awards, sculptor Stéphane Barret had to rely on photos and videos to create a statue as close to reality as possible, without the presence of the international star.”
On Monday afternoon, Musée Grévin, which houses 250 celebrity statues, said on Instagram that its artists were “working on improving” the waxwork. “Your feedback is always valuable to us,” they wrote.
Source link : theblackwallsttimes.com
