I Am the ‘Boys Have a Penis’ Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: An Interview.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is best known as an action movie legend. But, at the height of his star power in the 1980s and 1990s, he also delivered several genuinely hilarious comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which celebrates its 35-year mark this December.

The Film and The Famous Scene

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger portrays a tough police officer who poses as a kindergarten teacher to locate a fugitive. Throughout the story, the investigation plot serves as a basic structure for Arnold to have charming scenes with children. Arguably the most famous belongs to a child named Joseph, who unprompted rises and declares the actor, “Males have a penis, females have a vagina.” Schwarzenegger responds dryly, “Thanks for the tip.”

That iconic child was played by youth performer Miko Hughes. His career included a recurring role on Full House playing the antagonist to the child stars and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with several projects in development. Additionally, he is a regular on fan conventions. He recently recalled his memories from the set of Kindergarten Cop over three decades on.

Behind the Scenes

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

Yeah, somewhat. They're snapshots. They're like picture memories.

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My parents, primarily my mom would bring me to auditions. Sometimes it was a mass tryout. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all just have to wait, enter the casting office, be in there less than five minutes, read a small part they wanted and then leave. My parents would feed me the lines and then, as soon as I could read, that was some of the first material 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 suppose makes sense. It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that likely wouldn't create a positive atmosphere. He was a joy to have on set.

“It would have been odd if he was mean to all the kids in the classroom.”

I knew he was a big action star because I was told, but I had not actually watched his movies. I sensed the excitement — like, that's cool — but he didn't frighten me. He was simply playful and I only wanted to hang out with him when he had time. He was busy, obviously, but he'd kind of play with us here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. He'd flex and we'd be dangling there. He was exceptionally kind. He purchased for each child in the classroom a yellow cassette player, which at the time was like an iPhone. That was the hottest tech out there, that distinctive classic yellow cassette player. I listened to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for a long time on that thing. It finally gave out. I also have a authentic coach's whistle. He had the teacher's whistle, and the kids all got a whistle as well.

Do you remember your experience as being enjoyable?

You know, it's amusing, that movie is such a landmark. It was such a big movie, and it was a wonderful time, and you would think, in retrospect, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, the location shoot, seeing the set, but my memories are of being a finitely child at lunch. For instance, they got everyone pizza, but I didn't even like pizza. All I would eat was the meat from the top. Then, the Nintendo Game Boy was just released. That was the big craze, and I was proficient. I was the smallest kid and some of the other children would ask for my help to beat difficult stages on games because I could do it, and I was quite pleased with myself. So, it's all little kid memories.

The Infamous Moment

OK, the infamous quote, do you remember how it happened? Did you know what you were saying?

At the time, I probably didn't know what the word shocking meant, but I understood it was edgy and it caused the crew to chuckle. 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.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it originated, based on what I was told, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. Some character lines were written into the script, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they worked on it while filming and, reportedly someone in charge came to my mom and said, "We have an idea. We want Miko to have this line. Are you okay with this?" My mom didn't agree right away. She said, "I need to consider this, let me sleep on it" and took a short while. It was a tough call for her. She said she was hesitant, but she felt it will probably be one of the iconic quotes from the movie and history proved her correct.