I Am the Iconic Line Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: An Interview.

The action icon is best known as an Hollywood heavyweight. But, at the height of his star power in the late 20th century, he also delivered several surprisingly great comedies. A prime example is Kindergarten Cop, which hits its three-and-a-half decade milestone this winter.

The Story and An Iconic Moment

In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger plays a hardened detective who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher to locate a fugitive. Throughout the story, the crime storyline serves as a simple backdrop for Schwarzenegger to film humorous scenes with children. The most unforgettable belongs to a little boy named Joseph, who spontaneously stands up and declares the former bodybuilder, “Boys have a penis, females have a vagina.” The Terminator deadpans, “I appreciate the insight.”

That iconic child was played by youth performer Miko Hughes. Beyond this role encompassed a recurring role on Full House as the schoolyard menace to the famous sisters and the pivotal role of the resurrected boy in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with a slate of movies on the horizon. Furthermore, he engages with fans at the con circuit. Not long ago discussed his recollections from the production over three decades on.

Behind the Scenes

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

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

That's impressive, I have no memory from being four. Do you have any memories from that time?

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

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My mother, mainly would accompany me to auditions. Sometimes it was like a cattle call. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all simply wait around, be seen, be in there less than five minutes, deliver a quick line they wanted and that's all. My parents would coach me on the dialogue and then, when I became literate, that was some of the first material I was reading.

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

He was incredibly nice. He was fun. He was good-natured, which arguably isn't too surprising. It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that probably wouldn't make for a positive atmosphere. He was great to work with.

“It would be strange if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom.”

I understood he was a major movie star because I was told, but I had never really seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — it was exciting — but he wasn't scary to me. He was merely entertaining and I was eager to interact with him when he wasn't busy. He was busy, obviously, but he'd kind of play with us here and there, and we would cling to his muscles. He'd tense up and we'd be hanging off. He was incredibly giving. He purchased for each child in the classroom a yellow cassette player, which at the time was like an iPhone. This was the must-have gadget, that funky old yellow cassette player. I listened to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for years on that thing on that thing. It wore out in time. I also received a real silver whistle. He had the teacher's whistle, and the kids all got a whistle as well.

Do you remember your days on set as being positive?

You know, it's amusing, that movie is such a landmark. It was a major production, and it was an incredible opportunity, and you would think, in retrospect, I would want my memories to be of collaborating with Schwarzenegger, the legendary director, traveling to Oregon, seeing the set, but my memories are of being a really picky eater at lunch. For instance, they got everyone pizza, but I didn't even like pizza. All I would eat was the pepperoni off the top. Then, the original Game Boy was brand new. That was the coolest toy, and I was quite skilled. I was the smallest kid and some of the older kids would ask for my help to get past hard parts on games because I knew how, and I was quite pleased with myself. So, it's all childhood recollections.

The Infamous Moment

OK, the penis and vagina line, do you remember anything about it? Did you understand the words?

At the time, I likely didn't understand what the word provocative meant, but I knew it was provocative and it got a big laugh. I knew it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given an exception in this case because it was funny.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it originated, based on what I was told, was they didn't have specific roles. Some character lines were written into the script, but once they had the entire ensemble assembled, it wasn't necessarily improv, but they worked on it while filming and, presumably it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to have this line. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "Let me think about it, I need time" and took a day or two. It was a tough call for her. She said she had doubts, but she believed it could end up as one of the unforgettable moments from the movie and history proved her correct.