Dwayne Johnson responds to all the backlash surrounding the unveiling of a statue of him from a Paris wax museum that gets the skin color wrong with a joke about The Little Mermaid.
I first noticed the statue when a tweet went viral on Twitter with a meme offering, “Fans think ‘something is missing’ after Dwayne Johnson’s waxwork unveiled.” The meme added, “They can’t quite put their finger on it.”
I jokingly questioned, “Is that Vin Diesel?”
Is that Vin Diesel? đ€ https://t.co/7Hyrqv6jOz
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) October 19, 2023
Now Dwayne Johnson gets in on the fun and reposts a video by comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr. who roasts the statue and drops the joke, âIs this how yâall felt when you lost the Little Mermaid?â
Johnson also found the joke funny which is in regards to Disney race-swapping The Little Mermaid in its recent live-action movie.
“Legit belly laughed at this,” said The Rock.
Regarding the statue, it’s obvious the waxwork is a few shades too light (they used a different model than Johnson, see below). Johnson says he contacted the museum which is going to fix it.
âIâm going to have my team reach out to our friends at Grevin Museum, in Paris France so we can work at âupdatingâ my wax figure here with some important details and improvements- starting with my skin color. And next time Iâm in Paris, Iâll stop in and have a drink with myself,â said Johnson.
Check out the video and statue:
Museum used a different model
Stéphane Barret is the artist behind the sculpture, and previous to the controversy commented on the design where it is learned they used a different model than Johnson.
“When I was told I was going to work on Dwayne Johnson, I was really excited to be able to create this celebrity. It’s true that it’s always impressive to make people of this size. We were lucky enough to find someone who physically matched Dwayne Johnson’s build and height. That really allowed us to get it right,” he said, revealed the museum’s website.
Barret added, “What was a little harder for me was the sample photo that was chosen, where he just had a very slight smile on his face, an expression that’s quite difficult to achieve. It was very subtle.”
Barrett continued, “We worked on his face and eyes several times, because the most complicated thing about realism is getting the statue to come alive from the visitorsâ perspective.”
The website also adds: “The teams went to gyms in the hope of finding a man who matched The Rock’s extraordinary measurements.”
