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

The Austrian Oak is universally recognized as an iconic tough guy. Yet, during the peak of his star power in the eighties and nineties, he also starred in several surprisingly great comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which hits its three-and-a-half decade milestone this winter.

The Story and An Iconic Moment

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger plays a hardened detective who goes undercover as a elementary educator to track down a criminal. For much of the movie, the investigation plot functions as a simple backdrop for Arnold to film humorous scenes with children. Without a doubt the standout belongs to a little boy named Joseph, who out of nowhere announces and informs the actor, “Males have a penis, females have a vagina.” The Terminator deadpans, “I appreciate the insight.”

The boy behind the line was portrayed by former young actor Miko Hughes. Beyond this role featured a notable part on Full House as the bully to the Olsen twins and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He continues to act today, with several projects in development. He also is a regular on popular culture events. Not long ago shared his experiences from the production 35 years later.

A Young Actor's Perspective

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

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

That's remarkable, I have no memory from being four. Do you remember anything from that time?

Yeah, a little bit. They're snapshots. They're like mental photographs.

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

My family, especially my mother would take me to auditions. Often it was a mass tryout. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all simply wait around, enter the casting office, 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, once I learned to read, that was some of the first material I was reading.

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

He was very kind. He was enjoyable. He was pleasant, which I guess isn't too surprising. It would have been odd if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that probably wouldn't make for a good work environment. He was a joy to have on set.

“It'd be weird if he was mean to all the kids in the classroom.”

I was aware he was a big action star because I was told, but I had never really seen his movies. I knew the air around him — it was exciting — but he didn't frighten me. He was merely entertaining and I only wanted to hang out with him when he was available. He was busy, obviously, 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 gifted all the students in the classroom a personal stereo, which at the time was the hottest tech. That was the must-have gadget, that iconic bright yellow cassette player. I listened to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for ages on that thing. It wore out in time. I also received a genuine metal whistle. He had the teacher's whistle, and the kids all got a whistle as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being enjoyable?

You know, it's funny, that movie was this cultural thing. It was such a big movie, and it was a wonderful time, and you would think, looking back now, I would want my memories to be of collaborating with Schwarzenegger, the direction of Ivan Reitman, traveling to Oregon, seeing the set, but my memories are of being a selective diner at lunch. For example, they got everyone pizza, but I avoided pizza. All I would eat was the meat from the top. Then, the Nintendo Game Boy was just released. That was the hot thing, and I was proficient. I was the smallest kid and some of the other children would bring me their Game Boys to pass certain levels on games because I knew how, and I was really proud of that. So, it's all little kid memories.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember anything about it? Did you understand the words?

At the time, I probably didn't know what the word taboo meant, but I understood it was edgy and it caused the crew to chuckle. I knew it was kind of something I wouldn't usually utter, but I was given approval in this case because it was humorous.

“It was a difficult decision for her.”

How it originated, according to family lore, was they were still developing characters. Certain bits of dialogue 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, I suppose it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "We have an idea. We want Miko to deliver this dialogue. 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 some time. She deliberated carefully. She said she was hesitant, but she thought it could end up as one of the unforgettable moments from the movie and history proved her correct.