I'm Known As the Iconic Line Kid from Kindergarten Cop: An Interview.
The Austrian Oak is rightfully celebrated as an action movie legend. However, in the midst of his star power in the late 20th century, he also headlined several genuinely hilarious comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its three-and-a-half decade milestone this holiday season.
The Role and That Line
In the classic film, Schwarzenegger plays a hardened detective who masquerades as a kindergarten teacher to track down a criminal. Throughout the movie, the procedural element functions as a basic structure for Arnold to share adorable scenes with children. Arguably the most famous belongs to a little boy named Joseph, who unprompted stands up and states the stoic star, “Males have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” The Terminator replies icily, “Thank you for that information.”
That iconic child was brought to life by former young actor Miko Hughes. Beyond this role included a notable part on Full House as the schoolyard menace to the Olsen twins and the character of the resurrected boy in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He continues to act today, with a slate of movies on the horizon. Additionally, he frequently attends fan conventions. He recently discussed his experiences from the production after all this time.
Memories from the Set
Q: To begin, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop?
Miko Hughes: I think 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 remember anything from that time?
Yeah, to a degree. They're brief images. They're like mental photographs.
Do you recall how you got the part in Kindergarten Cop?
My mother, mainly would accompany me to auditions. Often it was an open call. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all simply wait around, be seen, be in there less than five minutes, read a small part they wanted and that was it. My parents would coach me on the dialogue and then, when I became literate, that was the initial content I was reading.
Do you have a specific memory 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'd be weird if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that likely wouldn't create a positive atmosphere. He was a joy to have on set.
“It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom.”
I understood he was a huge celebrity because my family informed me, but I had never really seen his movies. I felt the importance — like, that's cool — but he wasn't scary to me. He was just fun and I was eager to interact with him when he wasn't busy. He was busy, obviously, but he'd occasionally joke around here and there, and we would hang off of his arms. He'd tense up 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 the hottest tech. It was the hottest tech out there, 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 real silver whistle. He had the referee's whistle, and the kids all got a whistle as well.
Do you remember your time filming as being enjoyable?
You know, it's amusing, that movie is such a landmark. It was such a big movie, and it was an incredible opportunity, and you would think, in retrospect, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, traveling to Oregon, seeing the set, but my memories are of being a selective diner at lunch. Like, they got everyone pizza, but I didn't even like pizza. All I would eat was the toppings only. Then, the first-generation Game Boy was brand new. That was the coolest toy, and I was pretty good at it. I was the smallest kid and some of the older kids would ask for my help to pass certain levels on games because I was able to, and I was felt accomplished. So, it's all childhood recollections.
That Famous Quote
OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember the context? 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 got a big laugh. I was aware it was kind of something I wouldn't usually utter, but I was given special permission in this case because it was humorous.
“My mom thought hard about it.”
How it was conceived, from what I understand, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. A few scenes were part of the original screenplay, but once they had the entire ensemble assembled, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they developed it during shooting and, I suppose it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "We're thinking. We want Miko to say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom didn't agree right away. She said, "Give me a moment, I'll decide tomorrow" and took a day or two. It was a tough call for her. She said she was hesitant, but she believed it could end up as one of the iconic quotes from the movie and her instinct was correct.
