I Am the ‘Penis and Vagina’ Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: A Look Back.

The action icon is universally recognized as an iconic tough guy. Yet, at the height of his cinematic dominance in the eighties and nineties, he also headlined several genuinely hilarious comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which celebrates its three-and-a-half decade milestone this winter.

The Film and The Famous Scene

In the hit comedy, Schwarzenegger plays a undercover cop who goes undercover as a elementary educator to track down a criminal. For much of the film's runtime, the procedural element acts as a basic structure for the star to film humorous interactions with kids. The most unforgettable involves a little boy named Joseph, who out of nowhere rises and informs the former bodybuilder, “Males have a penis, females have a vagina.” Schwarzenegger deadpans, “Thank you for that information.”

The young actor was played by former young actor Miko Hughes. In addition to this part featured a character arc on Full House playing the antagonist to the famous sisters and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the screen translation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with several projects in development. Additionally, he frequently attends the con circuit. Not long ago shared his experiences from the filming of the classic 35 years later.

Behind the Scenes

Q: To begin, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop?

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

Wow, I have no memory from being four. Do you have any memories from that time?

Yeah, somewhat. They're snapshots. They're like mental photographs.

Do you recall how you were cast in Kindergarten Cop?

My family, especially my mother would take me to auditions. Often it was like a cattle call. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all simply wait around, enter the casting office, be in there less than five minutes, do whatever little line they wanted and that's all. My parents would feed me the lines and then, when I became literate, that was probably the first stuff 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 pleasant, which I suppose makes sense. It would have been odd if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that likely wouldn't create a good work environment. He was fun to be around.

“It would be strange if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom.”

I understood he was a major movie star because I was told, but I had never really seen his movies. I knew the air around him — like, that's cool — but he wasn't scary to me. He was simply playful and I was eager to interact with him when he wasn't busy. He was busy, obviously, but he'd occasionally joke around here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. He'd tense up and we'd be hanging off. He was really, really generous. He purchased for each child in the classroom a Sony Walkman, which at the time was a major status symbol. 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 years on that thing on that thing. It finally gave out. I also was given a authentic coach's whistle. He had the teacher's whistle, and the kids all received one too as well.

Do you remember your time filming as being fun?

You know, it's amusing, that movie was this cultural thing. 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 the star himself, the direction of Ivan Reitman, visiting Astoria, seeing the 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 toppings only. Then, the original Game Boy was new. That was the big craze, and I was pretty good at it. I was the youngest and some of the older kids 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 little kid memories.

The Line

OK, that specific dialogue, do you remember how it happened? Did you know what you were saying?

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 understood it was kind of something I wouldn't usually utter, but I was given an exception in this case because it was comedic.

“She really wrestled with it.”

How it came about, based on what I was told, was they were still developing characters. A few scenes were established early on, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it wasn't pure improvisation, but they refined it on set and, presumably it's either the director or producers came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to deliver this dialogue. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "Give me a moment, I'll decide tomorrow" and took a day or two. She deliberated carefully. She said she had doubts, but she thought it will probably be one of the iconic quotes from the movie and she was right.