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What did you do for your ninth birthday? Whatever it was, I can’t imagine it was as cool as Joseph Mazzello’s ninth birthday. The young actor spent the day filming the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park. You know, one of the most iconic scenes from one of the most successful movies of all time. Not bad for a ninth birthday.

However, the day wasn’t without its hiccups.

“We’re doing the kitchen scene, and we shot that over two weeks,” Tim Murphy actor Joseph Mazzello told the crowd during the Jurassic Park panel at C2E2 2026. “One of those days was actually my birthday, so that was fun. And I got injured on my birthday because when I was running into the freezer, that particular raptor was on wheels, it was like a shopping cart raptor, and we did like ten times. Something wasn’t working. I’m supposed to go left; it’s supposed to go right.”

“On take 11, the guy who was shopping loses control of the raptor, and it goes left with me, and I turn around, I don’t know why, and its claw hit me, metal claw, straight in the middle of the head, like between my eyes. And I fall down, we stop everything, everyone’s worried, I’m a little bit dazed down there. But Steven comes over to me, ‘Are you all right, Joey?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.’”

Spielberg apparently told the assembled crew, “‘Okay, well, I guess this is as good a time as any. Ready everybody? [Sings] Happy birthday.’ And everyone’s singing happy birthday to me,” Mazzello continued. “We had cake while I was still on the ground recovering. And if you want to know something about Steven Spielberg, when that all ended, he came up to me, and he says, ‘Joey, do you think we could do one more?’”

Getting injured by a raptor might have been unpleasant, but all in all, Mazzello still says it was a great birthday. “I mean, I got cake.”

You can watch the full Jurassic Park movie reunion panel from C2E2 2026 here: