A Paris museum is making a major change to a wax figure of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson after the Hollywood actor poked fun at his likeness and it went viral for all the wrong reasons

An employee adjusts the skin tone on the wax figure of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, after the actor complained about its pale skin tone, at the Grevin museum in Paris. Picture: AFP

A French museum is updating its wax figure of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson after the Hollywood actor asked for his skin tone to be corrected.

The Grevin Museum in Paris, which draws nearly 800,000 visitors a year and is the French equivalent* of famous London waxwork tourist spot Madame Tussauds, unveiled its model of the former wrestler-turned-actor on social media last week but was quickly met with criticism after fans commented on its fair* appearance.

The original Dwayne Johnson wax figure. Picture: Getty Images

Johnson — whose late father, the wrestler Rocky Johnson, was of Black Nova Scotian descent* and his mother, Ata Maivia, is Samoan — said he “belly laughed” when he saw the likeness. He took to Instagram to joke about the lightness of the skin.

“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 colour,” wrote Johnson, best known for movies including Black Adam and Jungle Cruise.

“And next time I’m in Paris, I’ll stop in and have a drink with myself.”

Dwayne Johnson as Frank and Emily Blunt as Lily in a scene from the movie Jungle Cruise. Picture: Disney

Some fans claimed The Rock was being “whitewashed*” while US comedian James Andre Jefferson Jr released an online video mocking the statue.

“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,” he said.

The museum immediately removed the wax model from public display and began making changes.

The wax figure of The Rock in the museum workshop. Picture: AFP

Museum director Yves Delhommeau said the wax figure was a work in progress.

“We removed the waxwork (from the show) on Monday evening. Our craftspeople worked on his complexion* through the night and day,” he said.

Mr Delhommeau said the sculptors and artists relied on photos and videos to create a figure “as close to reality as possible”.

“We worked for more than a year on the character of Dwayne Johnson, in particular to reproduce his very complicated tattoos,” he said.

Dressed in a short-sleeved polo shirt and navy blue pants, the wax figure has fellow actors Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney and even Meryl Streep as neighbours in the museum.