I Was the ‘Penis and Vagina’ Kid from Kindergarten Cop: A Look Back.

The Austrian Oak is best known as an action movie legend. But, in the midst of his star power in the 1980s and 1990s, he also headlined several critically acclaimed comedies. A prime example is Kindergarten Cop, which hits its three-and-a-half decade milestone this holiday season.

The Story and That Line

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger embodies a tough police officer who masquerades as a kindergarten teacher to locate a fugitive. During the story, the procedural element acts as a basic structure for Arnold to film humorous moments with his young class. Arguably the most famous belongs to a student named Joseph, who spontaneously rises and informs the stoic star, “Males have a penis, girls have a vagina.” Arnold deadpans, “Thank you for that information.”

The boy behind the line was played by child star Miko Hughes. In addition to this part encompassed a character arc 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 still works in film today, with a slate of movies listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he is a regular on the con circuit. He recently discussed his memories from the filming of the classic after all this time.

Memories from the Set

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

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

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

Yeah, to a degree. They're flashes. They're like picture memories.

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

My mother, mainly would take me to auditions. Sometimes it was a mass tryout. 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 was it. My parents would feed me the lines and then, when I became literate, that was the initial content I was reading.

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

He was extremely gentle. He was enjoyable. He was pleasant, which I suppose makes sense. It would be strange if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that likely wouldn't create a good work environment. He was a joy to have on set.

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

I knew he was a huge celebrity because that's what my parents told me, but I had barely seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — it was exciting — but he wasn't scary to me. He was simply playful and I was eager to interact with him when he wasn't busy. He was busy, obviously, but he'd sometimes engage here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. He'd flex and we'd be dangling there. He was really, really generous. He purchased for each child in the classroom a personal stereo, which at the time was a major status symbol. This 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 eventually broke. I also received a genuine metal whistle. He had the coach whistle, and the kids all were gifted copies as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being enjoyable?

You know, it's amusing, that movie was this cultural thing. It was such a big movie, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, looking back now, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, the direction of Ivan Reitman, the location shoot, being on a professional set, but my memories are of being a selective diner 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 first-generation Game Boy was new. That was the coolest toy, and I was quite skilled. I was the youngest and some of the older kids would hand me their devices to pass certain levels on games because I could do it, and I was quite pleased with myself. So, it's all youthful anecdotes.

The Infamous Moment

OK, the infamous quote, do you remember anything about it? Did you know what you were saying?

At the time, I wasn't fully aware of what the word shocking meant, but I knew it was provocative and it got a big laugh. I was aware it was kind of something I wasn't supposed to do, but I was given approval in this case because it was humorous.

“It was a difficult decision for her.”

How it was conceived, 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, presumably someone in charge came to my mom and said, "We're thinking. We want Miko to say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "I need to consider this, I'll decide tomorrow" and took some time. She really wrestled with it. She said she wasn't sure, but she felt it will probably be one of the iconic quotes from the movie and she was right.