I'm Known As the Iconic Line Kid from the Classic 1990 Film: A Candid Conversation.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is universally recognized as an Hollywood heavyweight. Yet, in the midst of his cinematic dominance in the eighties and nineties, he also headlined several genuinely hilarious comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its three-and-a-half decade milestone this December.

The Story and The Famous Scene

In the hit comedy, Schwarzenegger embodies a tough police officer who poses as a kindergarten teacher to track down a criminal. During the film's runtime, the crime storyline functions as a loose framework for Arnold to share adorable interactions with kids. Without a doubt the standout involves a little boy named Joseph, who out of nowhere announces and states the stoic star, “Boys have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” The Terminator replies icily, “Thanks for the tip.”

The boy behind the line was brought to life by child star Miko Hughes. In addition to this part encompassed a notable part on Full House playing the antagonist to the famous sisters and the haunting part of the child who returns in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He still works in film today, with several projects listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he engages with fans at popular culture events. He recently shared his memories from the filming of the classic after all this time.

A Young Actor's Perspective

Question: Starting off, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop?

Miko Hughes: My understanding is I was four. I was the youngest of all the kids on set.

That's remarkable, I can't remember being four. Do you have any memories from that time?

Yeah, to a degree. They're flashes. They're like visual recollections.

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My mother, mainly would accompany me to auditions. Often it was like a cattle call. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all just have to wait, be seen, be in there briefly, do whatever little line they wanted and that's all. My parents would coach me on the dialogue and then, once I learned to read, that was probably the first stuff I was reading.

Do you have an impression of meeting Arnold? What was your impression of him?

He was incredibly nice. He was fun. He was good-natured, which I guess isn't too surprising. It would be strange if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that likely wouldn't create a good work environment. He was fun to be around.

“It'd be weird if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom.”

I understood he was a big action star because that's what my parents told me, but I had barely seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — like, that's cool — but he wasn't scary to me. He was merely entertaining and I was eager to interact with him when he had time. He was busy, obviously, but he'd occasionally joke around here and there, and we would hang off of his arms. He'd tense up and we'd be hanging off. He was incredibly giving. He purchased for each child in the classroom a personal stereo, which at the time was like an iPhone. This was the hottest tech out there, that iconic bright yellow cassette player. I used to rock out to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for ages on that thing. It wore out in time. I also was given a authentic coach's whistle. He had the coach whistle, and the kids all received one too as well.

Do you remember your experience as being enjoyable?

You know, it's interesting, that movie is such a landmark. It was a major production, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, as an adult, I would want my memories to be of the star himself, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, the location shoot, being on a professional set, but my memories are of being a really picky eater at lunch. For instance, they got everyone pizza, but I avoided pizza. All I would eat was the meat from the top. Then, the first-generation Game Boy was brand new. That was the coolest toy, and I was pretty good at it. I was the smallest kid and some of the other children would hand me their devices to pass certain levels on games because I could do it, and I was really proud of that. So, it's all childhood recollections.

The Infamous Moment

OK, the infamous quote, do you remember anything about it? Did you grasp the meaning?

At the time, I wasn't fully aware of what the word shocking meant, but I knew it was provocative and it caused the crew to chuckle. I was aware it was kind of something I wasn't supposed to do, but I was given special permission in this case because it was funny.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it was conceived, from what I understand, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. Some character lines were written into the script, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they developed it during shooting and, presumably someone in charge came to my mom and said, "We're thinking. We want Miko to have this line. Are you okay with this?" My mom didn't agree right away. She said, "Give me a moment, I'll decide tomorrow" and took some time. She really wrestled with it. She said she had doubts, but she believed it could end up as one of the most memorable lines from the movie and her instinct was correct.