And just like that, another wax figure-related news cycle lives and dies. This past weekend, a new Parisian imagining of Dwayne Johnson made waves for being, to put it bluntly, very, very white. Sure, the Musée Grévin’s wax Rock had the signature smirk and mostly correct tattoos, but—clad as he was in a shirt more befitting of a high school dodgeball ref than a former wrestler or current action star—people couldn’t help but make certain comparisons.
On Twitter/X, users gleefully burned Fake Rock for looking like Mr. Clean, Vin Diesel, or even a member of the British Royal family. This last jeer (among many others) was actually reposted by Real Rock in an Instagram post offering some, er, gentle critiques to the artists behind his visage. “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.
Apparently, when The Rock speaks, the world—or at least the Musée Grévin—listens. According to Variety, the museum updated its statue with a darker skin tone within 24 hours of receiving the Rock’s request. No change to the gym coach t-shirt, but we assume that would take a little bit more effort than a new coat of paint.
“We found his reaction rather friendly when addressing the fact that his figure was indeed whiter than it should have been,” said the museum’s head of PR in a statement. “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 also revealed that since the museum never actually met with Johnson, they had to find a double for the star in a bodybuilding club—no easy feat considering his 6'5" stature and “those huge muscles.” Luckily for whoever that guy is, it doesn’t seem like anyone took issue with wax Rock’s physique. At least someone came out of this whole thing with an extra feather in his cap.