I Was the ‘Penis and Vagina’ Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: A Candid Conversation.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is best known as an Hollywood heavyweight. However, in the midst of his cinematic dominance in the eighties and nineties, he also headlined several critically acclaimed comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which hits its 35-year mark this December.

The Story and The Famous Scene

In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger portrays a tough police officer who goes undercover as a schoolteacher to track down a criminal. For much of the film's runtime, the procedural element serves as a simple backdrop for Schwarzenegger to have charming moments with his young class. The most unforgettable involves a child named Joseph, who unprompted announces and informs the stoic star, “Boys have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” The Terminator responds dryly, “Thank you for that information.”

The young actor was brought to life by youth performer Miko Hughes. In addition to this part encompassed a recurring role on Full House as the bully to the Olsen twins and the character of the resurrected boy in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He still works in film today, with a slate of movies listed on his IMDb. He also is a regular on the con circuit. Recently recalled his experiences from the set of Kindergarten Cop 35 years later.

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 most junior of all the kids on set.

That's remarkable, I don't recall being four. Do you retain any flashes from that time?

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

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My parents, primarily my mom would accompany me to auditions. Sometimes it was an open call. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all patiently queue, go into the room, be in there less than five minutes, read a small part they wanted and that's all. My parents would coach me on the dialogue and then, as soon as I could read, that was probably the first stuff I was reading.

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

He was incredibly nice. He was playful. He was good-natured, which arguably isn't too surprising. It would be strange if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster a positive atmosphere. He was fun to be around.

“It'd be weird if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom.”

I was aware he was a major movie star because I was told, but I had never really seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — he was a big deal — but he wasn't scary to me. He was simply playful and I was eager to interact with him when he had time. He was working hard, but he'd kind of play with us here and there, and we would hang off of his arms. He'd show his strength and we'd be holding on. He was exceptionally kind. He bought every kid in the classroom a Sony Walkman, which at the time was a major status symbol. That was the must-have gadget, 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 real silver whistle. He had the coach whistle, and the kids all were gifted copies as well.

Do you remember your experience as being fun?

You know, it's funny, that movie became a phenomenon. It was such a big movie, and it was a wonderful time, and you would think, as an adult, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, 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 toppings only. Then, the Nintendo Game Boy was new. That was the big craze, and I was pretty good at it. I was the smallest kid and some of the other children would bring me their Game Boys to get past hard parts on games because I was able to, and I was quite pleased with myself. So, it's all childhood recollections.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember anything about it? Did you understand the words?

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 was aware it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given approval in this case because it was comedic.

“She really wrestled with it.”

How it originated, according to family lore, was they were still developing characters. Certain bits of dialogue were written into the script, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it was more of a collaboration, but they developed it during shooting and, reportedly someone in charge came to my mom and said, "We're thinking. We want Miko to say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "Let me think about it, I need time" and took a day or two. It was a tough call for her. She said she was hesitant, but she believed it could end up as one of the most memorable lines from the movie and she was right.