I Am the Iconic Line Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: A Candid Conversation.

The Austrian Oak is best known as an action movie legend. But, during the peak of his star power in the eighties and nineties, he also delivered several critically acclaimed comedies. A prime example is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its three-and-a-half decade milestone this winter.

The Story and That Line

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger plays a hardened detective who goes undercover as a elementary educator to catch a killer. Throughout the story, the procedural element serves as a loose framework for Schwarzenegger to film humorous moments with his young class. The most unforgettable involves a little boy named Joseph, who spontaneously rises and declares the former bodybuilder, “It's boys who have a penis, females have a vagina.” Schwarzenegger deadpans, “Thanks for the tip.”

The boy behind the line was portrayed by former young actor Miko Hughes. Beyond this role included a recurring role on Full House playing the antagonist to the Olsen twins and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He continues to act today, with several projects listed on his IMDb. He also is a regular on fan conventions. Recently discussed his recollections from the production over three decades on.

Behind the Scenes

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 impressive, I can't remember being four. Do you remember anything from that time?

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

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

My mother, mainly would take me to auditions. Often it was a mass tryout. There'd be a room full of young actors and we'd all simply wait around, go into the room, be in there for a very short time, do whatever little line they wanted and then leave. 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 a specific memory of meeting Arnold? What was your impression of him?

He was incredibly nice. He was enjoyable. He was good-natured, which arguably makes sense. It would have been odd 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 a dick 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 not actually watched his movies. I felt the importance — it was exciting — but he didn't really intimidate me. He was merely entertaining 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 hang off of his arms. He'd show his strength and we'd be holding on. 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 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 wore out in time. I also was given a authentic coach's whistle. He had the teacher's whistle, and the kids all received one too as well.

Do you remember your experience as being positive?

You know, it's interesting, that movie became a phenomenon. 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, being on a professional 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 pepperoni off the top. Then, the original Game Boy was new. That was the coolest toy, and I was proficient. I was the smallest kid and some of the older kids would ask for my help to pass certain levels on games because I could do it, and I was really proud of that. So, it's all youthful anecdotes.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember anything about it? Did you grasp the meaning?

At the time, I likely didn't understand what the word provocative meant, but I knew it was provocative and it caused the crew to chuckle. I knew it was kind of something I wasn't supposed to do, but I was given special permission 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. A few scenes were established early on, but once they had the kids together, it was more of a collaboration, but they worked on it while filming and, reportedly it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "We're thinking. 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 a day or two. She deliberated carefully. She said she wasn't sure, but she believed it could end up as one of the iconic quotes from the movie and her instinct was correct.