I Am the Iconic Line Kid from Kindergarten Cop: A Candid Conversation.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is best known as an iconic tough guy. Yet, in the midst of his cinematic dominance in the late 20th century, he also headlined several surprisingly great comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its 35-year mark this December.

The Film and An Iconic Moment

In the hit comedy, Schwarzenegger portrays a undercover cop who goes undercover as a schoolteacher to locate a fugitive. For much of the story, the crime storyline serves as a basic structure for Arnold to film humorous scenes with children. The most unforgettable involves a child named Joseph, who unprompted stands up and informs the actor, “Boys have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” Schwarzenegger deadpans, “I appreciate the insight.”

The boy behind the line was portrayed by child star Miko Hughes. Beyond this role encompassed a notable part on Full House as the schoolyard menace to the Olsen twins and the pivotal role of the resurrected boy in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He continues to act today, with a slate of movies in development. Furthermore, he is a regular on popular culture events. Not long ago recalled his memories from the filming of the classic after all this time.

Memories from the Set

Question: Starting off, 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.

Wow, 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 picture memories.

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My mother, mainly would bring me to auditions. Sometimes it was like a cattle call. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all just have to wait, go into the room, be in there briefly, read a small part they wanted and that's all. My parents would feed me the lines and then, as soon as I could read, that was the initial content I was reading.

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

He was incredibly nice. He was enjoyable. He was nice, which I suppose isn't too surprising. It would have been odd if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster a positive atmosphere. He was great to work with.

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

I understood he was a major movie star because I was told, but I had barely seen his movies. I felt the importance — like, that's cool — but he wasn't scary to me. He was merely entertaining and I only wanted to hang out with him when he wasn't busy. He was occupied, of course, but he'd sometimes engage here and there, and we would cling to his muscles. He'd tense up and we'd be hanging off. He was really, really generous. He bought every kid in the classroom a personal stereo, which at the time was the hottest tech. It was the must-have gadget, that distinctive classic yellow cassette player. I used to rock out to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for years on that thing on that thing. It eventually broke. I also was given a real silver 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 became a phenomenon. It was a major production, and it was a wonderful time, and you would think, as an adult, I would want my memories to be of the star himself, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, traveling to Oregon, the production design, but my memories are of being a finitely child at lunch. Like, they got everyone pizza, but I avoided pizza. All I would eat was the meat from the top. Then, the original Game Boy was just released. That was the hot thing, and I was quite skilled. I was the youngest and some of the other children would ask for my help to pass certain levels on games because I knew how, and I was felt accomplished. So, it's all little kid memories.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember the context? Did you know what you were saying?

At the time, I wasn't fully aware of what the word provocative meant, but I realized it got a reaction and it got a big laugh. 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.

“She really wrestled with it.”

How it was conceived, from what I understand, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. Certain bits of dialogue were established early on, but once they had the entire ensemble assembled, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they worked on it while filming and, reportedly the filmmakers came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to deliver this dialogue. Are you okay with this?" My mom didn't answer immediately. She said, "I need to consider this, let me sleep on it" and took a short while. She really wrestled with it. She said she had doubts, but she felt it would likely become one of the unforgettable moments from the movie and her instinct was correct.