And to think, if Jurassic Park had stuck to its source material, Mazzello not only would have missed out on being called a human piece of toast by random fans, he wouldn’t have gotten to kiss Sam Neill or learn the filmmaking trade from Steven Spielberg himself.
The promise that both Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg saw in Joseph Mazzello yielded one hell of an audition story, and ultimately a casting swap that would change a minor detail in Michael Crichton’s source material for the screen.
Sometimes a failed audition can lead to a greater project overall.