I'm Known As the Iconic Line Kid from the Classic 1990 Film: An Interview.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is best known as an Hollywood heavyweight. However, in the midst of his blockbuster fame in the late 20th century, he also delivered several surprisingly great comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its 35-year mark this winter.

The Role and That Line

In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger embodies a hardened detective who poses as a elementary educator to track down a criminal. For much of the film's runtime, the crime storyline functions as a simple backdrop for Schwarzenegger to share adorable scenes with children. The most unforgettable involves a little boy named Joseph, who out of nowhere stands up and informs the stoic star, “It's boys who have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” The Terminator deadpans, “Thanks for the tip.”

That iconic child was brought to life by child star Miko Hughes. Beyond this role featured a notable part on Full House as the bully to the child stars and the pivotal role of the resurrected boy in the 1989 adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with a slate of movies listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he frequently attends fan conventions. Recently discussed his recollections from the set of Kindergarten Cop after all this time.

A Young Actor's Perspective

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

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

That's remarkable, I have no memory from being four. Do you retain any flashes from that time?

Yeah, to a degree. They're snapshots. They're like mental photographs.

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

My mother, mainly would bring me to auditions. Frequently it was a mass tryout. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all patiently queue, enter the casting office, be in there briefly, read a small part they wanted and that was it. My parents would feed me the lines and then, when I became literate, that was probably the first stuff I was reading.

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

He was extremely gentle. He was fun. He was nice, which arguably stands to reason. It would be strange if he was mean 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 unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom.”

I understood he was a big action star because my family informed me, but I had not actually watched his movies. I knew the air around him — he was a big deal — but he wasn't scary to me. He was simply playful and I only wanted to hang out with him when he was available. He was busy, obviously, 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 dangling there. He was really, really generous. 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 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 have a authentic coach's whistle. He had the coach whistle, and the kids all were gifted copies as well.

Do you remember your days on set as being enjoyable?

You know, it's amusing, that movie is such a landmark. It was a major production, 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, visiting Astoria, the production design, but my memories are of being a finitely child at lunch. For example, 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 just released. That was the coolest toy, and I was pretty good at it. I was the youngest and some of the bigger kids would ask for my help to get past hard parts 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 penis and vagina line, do you remember how it happened? Did you know what you were saying?

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 wasn't supposed to do, but I was given special permission in this case because it was humorous.

“She really wrestled with it.”

How it originated, from what I understand, was they were still developing characters. Certain bits of dialogue were part of the original screenplay, but once they had the entire ensemble assembled, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they refined it on set and, I suppose 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 paused. She said, "Give me a moment, let me sleep on it" and took a short while. She really wrestled with it. She said she was hesitant, but she believed it would likely become one of the iconic quotes from the movie and history proved her correct.