I Am the ‘Penis and Vagina’ Kid from Kindergarten Cop: A Look Back.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is rightfully celebrated as an Hollywood heavyweight. However, at the height of his star power in the 1980s and 1990s, he also starred in several genuinely hilarious comedies. A prime example is Kindergarten Cop, which hits its 35th anniversary this December.

The Role and The Famous Scene

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger plays a hardened detective who masquerades as a elementary educator to catch a killer. For much of the film's runtime, the crime storyline serves as a basic structure for Schwarzenegger to share adorable interactions with kids. Arguably the most famous involves a student named Joseph, who unprompted rises and informs the former bodybuilder, “Males have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” The Terminator replies icily, “Thanks for the tip.”

The young actor was played by former young actor Miko Hughes. Beyond this role encompassed a notable part on Full House as the bully to the Olsen twins and the pivotal role of the child who returns in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with a slate of movies listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he is a regular on the con circuit. Recently discussed his memories from the filming of the classic after all this time.

Memories from the Set

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

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

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

My family, especially my mother would bring me to auditions. Sometimes it was an open call. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all just have to wait, go into the room, be in there less than five minutes, deliver a quick line they wanted and that's all. My parents would feed me the lines and then, when I became literate, that was some of the first material I was reading.

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

He was extremely gentle. He was playful. He was good-natured, which I guess isn't too surprising. It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that likely wouldn't create a positive atmosphere. He was fun to be around.

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

I was aware he was a huge celebrity because that's what my parents told me, but I had not actually watched his movies. I knew the air around him — it was exciting — but he didn't frighten me. He was merely entertaining and I only wanted to hang out with him when he had time. He was busy, obviously, 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 dangling there. He was incredibly giving. He gifted all the students in the classroom a personal stereo, which at the time was like an iPhone. It was the must-have gadget, that funky old yellow cassette player. I listened to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for a long time on that thing. It eventually broke. I also was given a real silver whistle. He had the coach whistle, and the kids all were gifted copies as well.

Do you remember your days on set as being enjoyable?

You know, it's interesting, that movie became a phenomenon. It was a major production, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, in retrospect, I would want my memories to be of collaborating with Schwarzenegger, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, visiting Astoria, the production design, but my memories are of being a finitely child at lunch. For example, they got everyone pizza, but I wasn't a pizza fan. All I would eat was the meat from the top. Then, the first-generation Game Boy was just released. That was the coolest toy, and I was pretty good at it. I was the smallest kid and some of the bigger kids would hand me their devices to pass certain levels on games because I knew how, and I was quite pleased with myself. So, it's all youthful anecdotes.

The Infamous Moment

OK, the infamous quote, do you remember how it happened? Did you grasp the meaning?

At the time, I likely didn't understand what the word shocking meant, but I understood it was edgy and it made adults laugh. I knew it was kind of something I wasn't supposed to do, but I was given an exception in this case because it was funny.

“It was a difficult decision for her.”

How it was conceived, from what I understand, was they were still developing characters. A few scenes were part of the original screenplay, but once they had the entire ensemble assembled, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they developed it during shooting and, presumably the filmmakers came to my mom and said, "We're thinking. We want Miko to say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom didn't answer immediately. She said, "Let me think about it, 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.