The Rock Slams French Waxwork

Famous wrestler turned movie star; Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson was chosen by a French Museum to be immortalised in wax.

He was the first winner of the Grévin Awards, created by a wax museum of the same name situated in Paris and the sculptors were excited to be given the challenge of creating a life size reproduction of this larger than life character.

According to the museum, sculptor Stéphane Barret had to rely on photos and videos to create a figure as close to reality as possible, without actually meeting him and they even sent members of the team to several gyms hoping to find someone of similar build.

Once the body and features were complete, artists took a painstaking 10 days to reproduce his Samoan tattoos and they took three attempts to get his eyes right as they started off as too dark which elongated his face.

Finally, they were satisfied with the result but when the finished waxwork was unveiled on October 16, there was fan criticism over the light skin tone of the figure and even the Rock, known for his catchphrase “Smell what the Rock is cooking” joined in the criticism reportedly telling them to “update my wax figure with some important details, starting with my skin colour”.

In response, Museum director Yves Delhommeau told the AFP news agency the problem would be resolved and partially blamed the skin tone on a “lighting issue” but he did say Dwayne Johnson would visit the museum “later on to see if there are other modifications that need to be made.”