I Am the Iconic Line Kid from the Classic 1990 Film: A Look Back.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is best known as an Hollywood heavyweight. However, during the peak of his blockbuster fame in the late 20th century, he also delivered several genuinely hilarious comedies. Chief among them is Kindergarten Cop, which marks its three-and-a-half decade milestone this holiday season.

The Story and That Line

In the classic film, Schwarzenegger plays a hardened detective who goes undercover as a schoolteacher to catch a killer. For much of the film's runtime, the procedural element functions as a loose framework for the star to share adorable scenes with children. Arguably the most famous belongs to a student named Joseph, who out of nowhere rises and informs the actor, “Males have a penis, girls have a vagina.” Arnold replies icily, “Thanks for the tip.”

The young actor was portrayed by child star Miko Hughes. His career encompassed a recurring role on Full House as the schoolyard menace to the Olsen twins and the character of the child who returns in the 1989 adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He continues to act today, with several projects in development. He also is a regular on popular culture events. Recently discussed his recollections from the set of Kindergarten Cop after all this time.

Memories from the Set

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

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

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

Yeah, to a degree. They're snapshots. They're like mental photographs.

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My parents, primarily my mom would take me to auditions. Sometimes it was a mass tryout. There'd be a room full of young actors and we'd all just have to wait, be seen, be in there briefly, 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 some of the first material I was reading.

Do you have a specific memory of meeting Arnold? What was your impression of him?

He was extremely gentle. He was fun. He was good-natured, which I suppose isn't too surprising. It would be strange if he was mean to all the kids in the classroom, that probably wouldn't make for a positive atmosphere. He was a joy to have on set.

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

I knew he was a huge celebrity because my family informed me, but I had never really seen his movies. I felt the importance — like, that's cool — but he wasn't scary to me. He was merely entertaining and I was eager to interact with him when he was available. He was occupied, of course, but he'd occasionally joke around here and there, and we would hang off of his arms. He'd show his strength and we'd be dangling there. He was really, really generous. He purchased for each child in the classroom a Sony Walkman, which at the time was like an iPhone. It 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 received a authentic coach's whistle. He had the referee's whistle, and the kids all got a whistle as well.

Do you remember your days on set as being fun?

You know, it's amusing, that movie is such a landmark. It was such a big movie, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, in retrospect, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, working with [director] Ivan Reitman, visiting Astoria, being on a professional set, but my memories are of being a finitely child at lunch. For example, they got everyone pizza, but I didn't even like pizza. All I would eat was the pepperoni off the top. Then, the original Game Boy was new. That was the coolest toy, and I was quite skilled. I was the youngest and some of the bigger kids would bring me their Game Boys to get past hard parts on games because I knew how, and I was quite pleased with myself. So, it's all childhood recollections.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember the context? Did you know what you were saying?

At the time, I likely didn't understand what the word shocking meant, but I understood it was edgy and it got a big laugh. I understood it was kind of something I shouldn't normally say, but I was given an exception in this case because it was humorous.

“It was a difficult decision for her.”

How it was conceived, according to family lore, was they were still developing characters. Certain bits of dialogue were established early on, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they worked on it while filming and, reportedly the filmmakers came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to have this line. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "Give me a moment, I'll decide tomorrow" and took a short while. She really wrestled with it. She said she wasn't sure, but she felt it will probably be one of the iconic quotes from the movie and she was right.