I Was the ‘Penis and Vagina’ Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: An Interview.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is best known as an Hollywood heavyweight. Yet, during the peak of his star power in the late 20th century, he also delivered several surprisingly great comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which hits its 35-year mark this holiday season.

The Film and That Line

In the hit comedy, Schwarzenegger portrays a hardened detective who masquerades as a kindergarten teacher to catch a killer. For much of the movie, the investigation plot serves as a basic structure for Schwarzenegger to have charming interactions with kids. The most unforgettable involves a little boy named Joseph, who spontaneously announces and declares the actor, “It's boys who have a penis, girls have a vagina.” The Terminator deadpans, “Thanks for the tip.”

The boy behind the line was played by former young actor Miko Hughes. Beyond this role featured a notable part on Full House playing the antagonist to the Olsen twins and the pivotal role of the youngster who comes back in the 1989 adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He still works in film today, with a slate of movies listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he frequently attends fan conventions. Not long ago discussed his recollections from the filming of the classic over three decades on.

Memories from the Set

Question: Starting off, 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 impressive, I can't remember being four. Do you have any memories from that time?

Yeah, a little bit. They're brief images. They're like visual recollections.

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

My parents, primarily my mom would bring me to auditions. Frequently it was like a cattle call. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all patiently queue, be seen, be in there for a very short time, read a small part they wanted and that's all. My parents would help me learn the words and then, once I learned to read, that was probably the first stuff I was reading.

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

He was incredibly nice. He was enjoyable. He was nice, which I guess stands to reason. It would be strange if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that probably wouldn't make for a productive set. He was great to work with.

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

I understood he was a big action star because my family informed me, but I had never really seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — it was exciting — but he wasn't scary to me. He was just fun and I just wanted to play with him when he wasn't busy. He was working hard, but he'd kind of play with us here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. He'd tense up and we'd be holding on. He was exceptionally kind. He bought every kid in the classroom a Sony Walkman, which at the time was the hottest tech. 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 ages on that thing. It eventually broke. I also was given a authentic coach's whistle. He had the referee's whistle, and the kids all received one too as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being enjoyable?

You know, it's interesting, that movie is such a landmark. It was a huge film, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, looking back now, I would want my memories to be of collaborating with Schwarzenegger, the legendary director, visiting Astoria, the production design, but my memories are of being a selective diner at lunch. For example, they got everyone pizza, but I wasn't a pizza fan. All I would eat was the toppings only. Then, the Nintendo Game Boy was brand new. That was the hot thing, and I was pretty good at it. I was the youngest and some of the other children would ask for my help to beat difficult stages on games because I was able to, and I was really proud of that. So, it's all little kid memories.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember the context? Did you understand the words?

At the time, I wasn't fully aware of what the word taboo meant, but I knew it was provocative and it made adults laugh. I knew it was kind of something I wouldn't usually utter, but I was given approval in this case because it was humorous.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it was conceived, based on what I was told, 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 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 say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "Give me a moment, I'll decide tomorrow" and took a day or two. She really wrestled with it. She said she had doubts, but she thought it will probably be one of the unforgettable moments from the movie and she was right.