I Am the ‘Boys Have a Penis’ Kid from Kindergarten Cop: A Candid Conversation.

The action icon is best known as an iconic tough guy. Yet, at the height of his star power in the eighties and nineties, he also headlined several critically acclaimed comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this holiday season.

The Role and That Line

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger portrays a undercover cop who poses as a schoolteacher to catch a killer. Throughout the film's runtime, the procedural element serves as a simple backdrop for Arnold to film humorous moments with his young class. The most unforgettable involves a child named Joseph, who unprompted announces and states the actor, “Boys have a penis, females have a vagina.” Arnold responds dryly, “Thank you for that information.”

That iconic child was brought to life by youth performer Miko Hughes. In addition to this part encompassed a recurring role on Full House as the schoolyard menace to the child stars and the character 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 frequently attends the con circuit. Recently shared his experiences from the set of Kindergarten Cop 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 youngest of all the kids on set.

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

Yeah, a little bit. They're brief images. They're like picture memories.

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

My family, especially my mother would accompany me to auditions. Sometimes it was a mass tryout. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all patiently queue, go into the room, be in there less than five minutes, do whatever little line they wanted and that was it. 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 fun. He was pleasant, which I suppose makes sense. It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster 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 understood he was a big action star because my family informed me, but I had not actually watched his movies. I sensed the excitement — he was a big deal — but he wasn't scary to me. He was just fun and I just wanted to play with him when he had time. He was busy, obviously, but he'd kind of play with us here and there, and we would cling to his muscles. He'd tense up and we'd be dangling there. He was incredibly giving. He gifted all the students in the classroom a personal stereo, which at the time was the hottest tech. It was the coolest device, that iconic bright yellow cassette player. I played the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for ages on that thing. It finally gave out. I also was given a authentic coach's whistle. He had the coach whistle, and the kids all received one too as well.

Do you remember your days on set as being enjoyable?

You know, it's funny, that movie is such a landmark. It was such a big movie, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, as an adult, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, the direction of Ivan Reitman, the location shoot, the production design, but my memories are of being a selective diner 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 Nintendo Game Boy was just released. That was the hot thing, and I was quite skilled. I was the youngest and some of the other children would bring me their Game Boys to beat difficult stages on games because I could do it, and I was felt accomplished. So, it's all childhood recollections.

The Infamous Moment

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember the context? Did you grasp the meaning?

At the time, I probably didn't know what the word shocking meant, but I realized it got a reaction and it made adults laugh. 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 funny.

“She really wrestled with it.”

How it originated, according to family lore, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. Some character lines were established early on, but once they had the kids together, it wasn't necessarily improv, but they developed it during shooting and, presumably someone in charge came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to say this. 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 short while. She deliberated carefully. She said she was hesitant, but she felt it could end up as one of the iconic quotes from the movie and she was right.