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

The action icon is rightfully celebrated as an Hollywood heavyweight. But, during the peak of his cinematic dominance in the late 20th century, he also headlined several critically acclaimed comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its 35-year mark this December.

The Film and That Line

In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger plays a tough police officer who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher to catch a killer. During the movie, the investigation plot acts as a simple backdrop for Arnold to have charming moments with his young class. Without a doubt the standout involves a little boy named Joseph, who unprompted stands up and informs the stoic star, “Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina.” The Terminator replies icily, “Thank you for that information.”

The boy behind the line was portrayed by child star Miko Hughes. His career featured a character arc on Full House as the schoolyard menace to the child stars and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He still works in film today, with a slate of movies in development. Furthermore, he is a regular on fan conventions. Not long ago recalled his memories from the filming of the classic 35 years later.

Memories from the Set

Interviewer: First, 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 impressive, I can't remember being four. Do you have any memories from that time?

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

Do you recall how you got the part in Kindergarten Cop?

My parents, primarily my mom would bring me to auditions. Frequently it was like a cattle call. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all patiently queue, go into the room, be in there less than five minutes, 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 probably the first stuff 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 pleasant, which I guess isn't too surprising. It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster a positive atmosphere. He was great to work with.

“It'd be weird if he was mean 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 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 was available. He was busy, obviously, but he'd occasionally joke around here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. He'd flex and we'd be dangling there. He was exceptionally kind. He gifted all the students in the classroom a yellow cassette player, which at the time was a major status symbol. That 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 a long time on that thing. It eventually broke. I also received a genuine metal whistle. He had the teacher's whistle, and the kids all received one too as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being fun?

You know, it's interesting, that movie was this cultural thing. It was a huge film, 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, being on a professional set, 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 Nintendo Game Boy was new. That was the big craze, and I was pretty good at it. I was the smallest kid and some of the bigger kids would bring me their Game Boys to get past hard parts on games because I could do it, and I was quite pleased with myself. So, it's all youthful anecdotes.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, 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 caused the crew to chuckle. I knew it was kind of something I wasn't supposed to do, but I was given approval in this case because it was comedic.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it was conceived, based on what I was told, 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 necessarily improv, but they worked on it while filming and, presumably the filmmakers 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 some time. It was a tough call for her. She said she was hesitant, but she thought it will probably be one of the iconic quotes from the movie and her instinct was correct.