I Was the ‘Boys Have a Penis’ Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: A Look Back.

The Austrian Oak is rightfully celebrated as an Hollywood heavyweight. Yet, in the midst of his blockbuster fame in the eighties and nineties, he also delivered several critically acclaimed comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this holiday season.

The Role and That Line

In the hit comedy, Schwarzenegger portrays a tough police officer who goes undercover as a schoolteacher to locate a fugitive. Throughout the movie, the crime storyline serves as a simple backdrop for Arnold to share adorable interactions with kids. Without a doubt the standout features a little boy named Joseph, who out of nowhere stands up and informs the actor, “It's boys who have a penis, females have a vagina.” Arnold replies icily, “I appreciate the insight.”

That iconic child was played by child star Miko Hughes. Beyond this role featured a recurring role on Full House playing the antagonist to the famous sisters and the haunting part of the youngster who comes back in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He still works in film today, with several projects listed on his IMDb. Additionally, he is a regular on fan conventions. He recently discussed his recollections from the filming of the classic after all this time.

Behind the Scenes

Interviewer: First, 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.

Wow, I don't recall being four. Do you retain any flashes from that time?

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

Do you recall how you landed the job in Kindergarten Cop?

My family, especially my mother would take me to auditions. Sometimes it was like a cattle call. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all just have to wait, go into the room, be in there for a very short time, read a small part they wanted and that's all. My parents would feed me the lines 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 incredibly nice. He was playful. He was pleasant, which arguably isn't too surprising. It'd be weird if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that probably wouldn't make for a positive atmosphere. He was great to work with.

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

I knew he was a major movie star because that's what my parents told me, but I had barely seen his movies. I felt the importance — it was exciting — but he didn't really intimidate 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 cling to his muscles. He'd flex and we'd be dangling there. He was exceptionally kind. He purchased for each child in the classroom a personal stereo, which at the time was the hottest tech. This was the must-have gadget, that funky old yellow cassette player. I listened to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for ages on that thing. It finally gave out. I also was given a genuine metal whistle. He had the teacher's whistle, and the kids all were gifted copies as well.

Do you remember your experience as being positive?

You know, it's interesting, that movie is such a landmark. It was a major production, and it was an incredible opportunity, and you would think, looking back now, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, the direction of Ivan Reitman, traveling to Oregon, the production design, but my memories are of being a really picky eater at lunch. For example, they got everyone pizza, but I wasn't a pizza fan. All I would eat was the meat from the top. Then, the original Game Boy was new. That was the hot thing, and I was quite skilled. I was the smallest kid and some of the other children would bring me their Game Boys to beat difficult stages on games because I knew how, and I was really proud of that. So, it's all childhood recollections.

The Infamous Moment

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

At the time, I probably didn't know what the word shocking meant, but I realized it got a reaction and it got a big laugh. I knew it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given an exception in this case because it was funny.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it came about, according to family lore, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. A few scenes were written into the script, but once they had the entire ensemble assembled, it wasn't necessarily improv, 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 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. She really wrestled with it. She said she wasn't sure, but she thought it would likely become one of the most memorable lines from the movie and history proved her correct.