Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is responding to the controversy involving a wax statue made in his likeness. The wax figure made its debut in the famous Musée Grévin over in Paris last week; people who saw pictures of it online and viewed it in real life all came away with one disturbing observation: the statue was a white-washed version of The Rock.
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As you can see in Johnson’s repost (of comedian James Jefferson Jr.’s reel) the pasty wax figure conveys almost none of Johnson’s ethnic status as a man of color (Black Nova Scotian, and Samoan with a bit of Irish). The unveiling quickly inspired a flame-war of Internet responses; the rumblings got loud enough that Johnson himself has now weighed in with an official response!
First, Johnson acknowledged that he knew the controversy was inevitable, stating, “I knew my boy @jamesjeffersonj had this Rock wax statue in his roasting crosshairs.” After quoting one joke that Jefferson made about this statue being retribution for Disney’s Little Mermaid live-action remake, Johnson got a lot more serious about what was being done 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 🤣✊🏾💪🏾
And next time I’m in Paris, I’ll stop in and have a drink with myself 🥃 😉
“Representation” is a word that’s been more and more prevalent in the entertainment industry in the last decade – and this is a pretty good example of why. What boggles the mind is the question on whether or not the designers and sculptors of the statue actually thought they were doing Johnson a favor by lightening his skin. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of lingering stigma attached to the idea of skin tone, as well as an entire cinematic history of people of color either having their skin tone digitally altered in promotional materials – or having their image minimized or outright cropped out of promo materials in foreign markets.
If anything, this particular case is upsetting in that it proves that even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – one of the biggest and most beloved stars in entertainment, worldwide – can’t avoid this kind of offensive treatment – who can?
