I Am the ‘Boys Have a Penis’ Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: A Candid Conversation.

The Austrian Oak is rightfully celebrated as an action movie legend. But, in the midst of his star power in the eighties and nineties, he also starred in several genuinely hilarious comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which hits its three-and-a-half decade milestone this holiday season.

The Story and The Famous Scene

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger portrays a hardened detective who poses as a schoolteacher to catch a killer. Throughout the story, the investigation plot functions as a simple backdrop for Schwarzenegger to share adorable scenes with children. The most unforgettable involves a little boy named Joseph, who unprompted announces and informs the actor, “Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina.” The Terminator replies icily, “Thank you for that information.”

The boy behind the line was portrayed by child star Miko Hughes. Beyond this role encompassed a recurring role on Full House playing the antagonist to the child stars and the character of the child who returns in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with multiple films listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he frequently attends popular culture events. Recently shared his recollections from the set of Kindergarten Cop after all this time.

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, a little bit. They're snapshots. They're like mental photographs.

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

My parents, primarily my mom would bring me to auditions. Often it was like a cattle call. There'd be a room full of young actors and we'd all patiently queue, go into the room, be in there briefly, deliver a quick line they wanted and that was it. My parents would feed me the lines and then, when I became literate, that was the initial content I was reading.

Do you have an impression of meeting Arnold? What was your feeling about him?

He was incredibly nice. He was playful. He was good-natured, which arguably makes sense. It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that probably wouldn't make for a good work environment. He was fun to be around.

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

I understood he was a major movie star because that's what my parents told me, but I had barely seen his movies. I sensed the excitement — it was exciting — but he wasn't scary to me. He was merely entertaining and I just wanted to play with him when he wasn't busy. 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 yellow cassette player, which at the time was a major status symbol. That was the must-have gadget, that funky old yellow cassette player. I listened to the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for years on that thing 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 got a whistle as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being positive?

You know, it's interesting, that movie became a phenomenon. It was such a big movie, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, looking back now, I would want my memories to be of the star himself, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, the location shoot, seeing the set, but my memories are of being a finitely child at lunch. Like, they got everyone pizza, but I avoided pizza. All I would eat was the toppings only. Then, the first-generation Game Boy was new. That was the hot thing, and I was pretty good at it. I was the youngest and some of the older kids would ask for my help to get past hard parts on games because I could do it, and I was felt accomplished. So, it's all childhood recollections.

That Famous Quote

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 taboo meant, but I knew it was provocative and it caused the crew to chuckle. I knew it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given an exception in this case because it was comedic.

“My mom thought hard about it.”

How it was conceived, according to family lore, was they hadn't finalized all the dialogue. Certain bits of dialogue were written into the script, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it wasn't necessarily improv, but they refined it on set and, I suppose it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "We have an idea. We want Miko to deliver this dialogue. Are you okay with this?" My mom didn't agree right away. She said, "Give me a moment, I need time" and took some time. It was a tough call for her. She said she was hesitant, but she thought it will probably be one of the unforgettable moments from the movie and she was right.