I'm Known As the ‘Boys Have a Penis’ Kid from the Classic 1990 Film: A Candid Conversation.

The action icon is rightfully celebrated as an iconic tough guy. But, at the height of his cinematic dominance in the late 20th century, he also starred in several surprisingly great comedies. A prime example is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its 35-year mark this holiday season.

The Story and An Iconic Moment

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger plays a hardened detective who masquerades as a elementary educator to catch a killer. During the film's runtime, the investigation plot acts as a loose framework for the star to share adorable scenes with children. Without a doubt the standout belongs to a child named Joseph, who unprompted announces and declares the stoic star, “It's boys who have a penis, girls have a vagina.” The Terminator replies icily, “Thank you for that information.”

The young actor was brought to life by youth performer Miko Hughes. Beyond this role featured a recurring role on Full House as the bully to the famous sisters and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with several projects listed on his IMDb. Additionally, he engages with fans at popular culture events. He recently shared his experiences from the production 35 years later.

A Young Actor's Perspective

Interviewer: First, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop?

Miko Hughes: I believe I was four. I was the smallest of all the kids on set.

That's remarkable, I have no memory from being four. Do you retain any flashes from that time?

Yeah, to a degree. They're snapshots. They're like visual recollections.

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

My mother, mainly would accompany me to auditions. Sometimes it was a mass tryout. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all simply wait around, be seen, be in there for a very short time, deliver a quick line they wanted and that's all. My parents would feed me the lines 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 feeling about him?

He was incredibly nice. He was enjoyable. He was good-natured, which I suppose isn't too surprising. It would have been odd if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that likely wouldn't create a productive set. He was a joy to have on set.

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

I knew he was a big action star because I was told, but I had never really seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — like, that's cool — but he wasn't scary to me. He was simply playful and I only wanted to hang out with him when he had time. He was occupied, of course, but he'd occasionally joke around here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. He'd tense up and we'd be holding on. He was really, really generous. He bought every kid in the classroom a Sony Walkman, which at the time was the hottest tech. It was the hottest tech out there, 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 have a authentic coach's whistle. He had the referee's whistle, and the kids all got a whistle as well.

Do you remember your experience as being positive?

You know, it's amusing, that movie was this cultural thing. It was a huge film, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, in retrospect, 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 finitely child at lunch. For instance, they got everyone pizza, but I didn't even like pizza. All I would eat was the pepperoni off the top. Then, the original Game Boy was new. That was the hot thing, and I was pretty good at it. I was the youngest and some of the bigger kids would bring me their Game Boys to get past hard parts on games because I could do it, and I was really proud of that. So, it's all little kid memories.

The Infamous Moment

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 realized it got a reaction and it got a big laugh. I was aware it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given approval in this case because it was comedic.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it was conceived, according to family lore, was they didn't have specific roles. Some character lines were written into the script, but once they had the kids together, it was more of a collaboration, but they refined it on set and, reportedly it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "I need to consider this, I need time" and took some time. She really wrestled with it. She said she was hesitant, but she thought it would likely become one of the most memorable lines from the movie and she was right.