I Am the Iconic Line Kid from the Classic 1990 Film: A Candid Conversation.

The action icon is rightfully celebrated as an Hollywood heavyweight. Yet, in the midst of his star power in the 1980s and 1990s, he also delivered several genuinely hilarious comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its 35-year mark this December.

The Role and An Iconic Moment

In the hit comedy, Schwarzenegger portrays a tough police officer who goes undercover as a elementary educator to locate a fugitive. Throughout the movie, the crime storyline acts as a basic structure for Arnold to film humorous moments with his young class. Arguably the most famous involves a little boy named Joseph, who spontaneously announces and informs the actor, “Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina.” Arnold deadpans, “Thanks for the tip.”

The young actor was brought to life by former young actor Miko Hughes. His career included a notable part on Full House playing the antagonist to the child stars and the pivotal role of the child who returns in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with several projects listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he is a regular on popular culture events. Not long ago discussed his recollections from the set of Kindergarten Cop after all this time.

Behind the Scenes

Question: Starting off, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop?

Miko Hughes: I think I was four. I was the youngest of all the kids on set.

That's remarkable, I can't remember being four. Do you have any memories from that time?

Yeah, somewhat. They're snapshots. They're like mental photographs.

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My family, especially my mother would take me to auditions. Often it was like a cattle call. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all just have to wait, go into the room, be in there less than five minutes, do whatever little line they wanted and that's all. My parents would feed me the lines and then, as soon as I could read, that was the initial content 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 arguably isn't too surprising. It would have been odd if he was mean to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster a positive atmosphere. He was a joy to have on set.

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

I knew he was a big action star because that's what my parents told me, but I had never really seen his movies. I felt the importance — it was exciting — but he wasn't scary to me. He was merely entertaining and I only wanted to hang out with him when he had time. He was working hard, but he'd sometimes engage here and there, and we would cling to his muscles. He'd tense up and we'd be holding on. He was exceptionally kind. He bought every kid in the classroom a yellow cassette player, which at the time was like an iPhone. This was the hottest tech out there, that distinctive classic yellow cassette player. I played the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for a long time on that thing. It finally gave out. I also was given a real silver whistle. He had the coach whistle, and the kids all got a whistle as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being positive?

You know, it's amusing, that movie became a phenomenon. 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 working with Arnold, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, the location shoot, being on a professional set, but my memories are of being a finitely child at lunch. For example, they got everyone pizza, but I avoided pizza. All I would eat was the pepperoni off the top. Then, the first-generation Game Boy was new. That was the coolest toy, and I was quite skilled. I was the youngest and some of the older kids would ask for my help to get past hard parts on games because I knew how, and I was really proud of that. So, it's all little kid memories.

The Infamous Moment

OK, the infamous quote, do you remember anything about it? Did you grasp the meaning?

At the time, I likely didn't understand what the word taboo meant, but I understood it was edgy and it got a big laugh. I knew it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given special permission in this case because it was funny.

“It was a difficult decision for her.”

How it came about, based on what I was told, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. A few scenes were part of the original screenplay, but once they had the kids together, it wasn't necessarily improv, but they developed it during shooting and, presumably the filmmakers 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, "Give me a moment, I need time" and took a day or two. It was a tough call for her. She said she wasn't sure, but she thought it will probably be one of the most memorable lines from the movie and her instinct was correct.