I Was the Iconic Line Kid from Kindergarten Cop: An Interview.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is rightfully celebrated as an iconic tough guy. But, at the height of his cinematic dominance in the eighties and nineties, he also delivered several genuinely hilarious comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its 35-year mark this holiday season.

The Story and That Line

In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger embodies a tough police officer who goes undercover as a elementary educator to catch a killer. Throughout the movie, the procedural element serves as a simple backdrop for Arnold to share adorable moments with his young class. Without a doubt the standout belongs to a child named Joseph, who unprompted rises and informs the stoic star, “Males have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” Arnold responds dryly, “Thanks for the tip.”

The young actor was portrayed by child star Miko Hughes. Beyond this role included a notable part on Full House playing the antagonist to the child stars and the character of the resurrected boy in the 1989 adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He continues to act today, with several projects in development. Furthermore, he frequently attends popular culture events. Not long ago recalled his memories from the production after all this time.

Memories from the Set

Q: To begin, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop?

Miko Hughes: I think I was four. I was the most junior of all the kids on set.

That's impressive, I can't remember being four. Do you remember anything from that time?

Yeah, a little bit. They're brief images. They're like visual recollections.

Do you recall how you landed the job in Kindergarten Cop?

My mother, mainly would accompany me to auditions. Sometimes it was an open call. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all simply wait around, be seen, be in there less than five minutes, do whatever little line they wanted and that's all. My parents would feed me the lines and then, once I learned to read, that was the initial content I was reading.

Do you have a specific memory of meeting Arnold? What was your feeling about him?

He was very kind. He was fun. He was good-natured, which I suppose stands to reason. It would have been odd if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that probably wouldn't make for a good work environment. He was fun to be around.

“It would have been odd if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom.”

I understood he was a major movie star because my family informed me, but I had never really seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — like, that's cool — but he didn't really intimidate me. He was merely entertaining and I just wanted to play with him when he had time. He was working hard, but he'd kind of play with us here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. He'd tense up and we'd be hanging off. He was exceptionally kind. He bought every kid in the classroom a Sony Walkman, which at the time was a major status symbol. That was the must-have gadget, that funky old yellow cassette player. I played the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for years on that thing on that thing. It finally gave out. I also have a authentic coach's whistle. He had the referee's whistle, and the kids all received one too as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being positive?

You know, it's funny, that movie is such a landmark. It was such a big movie, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, in retrospect, I would want my memories to be of the star himself, the direction of Ivan Reitman, traveling to Oregon, the production design, but my memories are of being a really picky eater at lunch. Like, they got everyone pizza, but I didn't even like pizza. All I would eat was the pepperoni off the top. Then, the first-generation Game Boy was brand new. That was the big craze, and I was proficient. I was the youngest and some of the bigger kids would bring me their Game Boys to get past hard parts on games because I knew how, and I was felt accomplished. So, it's all childhood recollections.

The Infamous Moment

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember anything about it? Did you grasp the meaning?

At the time, I wasn't fully aware of what the word provocative meant, but I understood it was edgy and it caused the crew to chuckle. I understood it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given an exception in this case because it was humorous.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it originated, according to family lore, was they were still developing characters. Certain bits of dialogue were part of the original screenplay, but once they had the kids together, it was more of a collaboration, but they developed it during shooting and, presumably it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "Give me a moment, let me sleep on it" and took a day or two. She deliberated carefully. She said she was hesitant, but she felt it could end up as one of the iconic quotes from the movie and she was right.