🔗 Share this article I Am the ‘Boys Have a Penis’ Kid from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy: A Candid Conversation. Arnold Schwarzenegger is rightfully celebrated as an iconic tough guy. Yet, during the peak of his cinematic dominance in the late 20th century, he also starred in several genuinely hilarious comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this December. The Role and An Iconic Moment In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger portrays a tough police officer who masquerades as a schoolteacher to catch a killer. Throughout the story, the procedural element serves as a basic structure for Arnold to film humorous interactions with kids. The most unforgettable belongs to a little boy named Joseph, who spontaneously stands up and states the actor, “Males have a penis, females have a vagina.” Arnold replies icily, “I appreciate the insight.” That iconic child was played by child star Miko Hughes. Beyond this role encompassed a character arc on Full House as the bully to the child stars and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with a slate of movies listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he frequently attends popular culture events. He recently shared his recollections from the set of Kindergarten Cop over three decades on. Memories from the Set Interviewer: First, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop? Miko Hughes: I think I was four. I was the smallest 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, a little bit. They're flashes. They're like picture memories. Do you recall how you got the part in Kindergarten Cop? My parents, primarily my mom would accompany me to auditions. Frequently it was a mass tryout. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all just have to wait, be seen, be in there less than five minutes, 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 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 nice, which I suppose stands to reason. It'd be weird if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster a positive atmosphere. He was a joy to have on set. “It would be strange if he was mean to all the kids in the classroom.” I knew he was a big action star because my family informed me, but I had barely 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 wasn't busy. He was working hard, 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 hanging off. He was exceptionally kind. He bought every kid in the classroom a yellow cassette player, which at the time was like an iPhone. This was the hottest tech out there, that iconic bright yellow cassette player. I played the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for a long time on that thing. It finally gave out. I also received a genuine metal whistle. He had the referee's whistle, and the kids all were gifted copies as well. Do you remember your time filming as being fun? You know, it's amusing, that movie became a phenomenon. It was such a big movie, and it was a wonderful time, and you would think, looking back now, I would want my memories to be of collaborating with Schwarzenegger, 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 wasn't a pizza fan. All I would eat was the toppings only. Then, the original Game Boy was brand new. That was the big craze, and I was pretty good at it. I was the smallest kid and some of the older 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, that specific dialogue, do you remember how it happened? Did you grasp the meaning? At the time, I wasn't fully aware of what the word taboo meant, but I knew it was provocative and it got a big 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 humorous. “My mom thought hard about it.” How it originated, according to family lore, was they were still developing characters. Some character lines were written into the script, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it wasn't necessarily improv, but they developed it during shooting 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 need time" and took a day or two. She deliberated carefully. She said she was hesitant, but she thought it could end up as one of the iconic quotes from the movie and she was right.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is rightfully celebrated as an iconic tough guy. Yet, during the peak of his cinematic dominance in the late 20th century, he also starred in several genuinely hilarious comedies. The standout film is Kindergarten Cop, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this December. The Role and An Iconic Moment In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger portrays a tough police officer who masquerades as a schoolteacher to catch a killer. Throughout the story, the procedural element serves as a basic structure for Arnold to film humorous interactions with kids. The most unforgettable belongs to a little boy named Joseph, who spontaneously stands up and states the actor, “Males have a penis, females have a vagina.” Arnold replies icily, “I appreciate the insight.” That iconic child was played by child star Miko Hughes. Beyond this role encompassed a character arc on Full House as the bully to the child stars and the haunting part of the resurrected boy in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with a slate of movies listed on his IMDb. Furthermore, he frequently attends popular culture events. He recently shared his recollections from the set of Kindergarten Cop over three decades on. Memories from the Set Interviewer: First, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop? Miko Hughes: I think I was four. I was the smallest 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, a little bit. They're flashes. They're like picture memories. Do you recall how you got the part in Kindergarten Cop? My parents, primarily my mom would accompany me to auditions. Frequently it was a mass tryout. There'd be dozens of children and we'd all just have to wait, be seen, be in there less than five minutes, 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 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 nice, which I suppose stands to reason. It'd be weird if he was unpleasant to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster a positive atmosphere. He was a joy to have on set. “It would be strange if he was mean to all the kids in the classroom.” I knew he was a big action star because my family informed me, but I had barely 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 wasn't busy. He was working hard, 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 hanging off. He was exceptionally kind. He bought every kid in the classroom a yellow cassette player, which at the time was like an iPhone. This was the hottest tech out there, that iconic bright yellow cassette player. I played the Power Rangers soundtrack and the Ninja Turtles soundtrack for a long time on that thing. It finally gave out. I also received a genuine metal whistle. He had the referee's whistle, and the kids all were gifted copies as well. Do you remember your time filming as being fun? You know, it's amusing, that movie became a phenomenon. It was such a big movie, and it was a wonderful time, and you would think, looking back now, I would want my memories to be of collaborating with Schwarzenegger, 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 wasn't a pizza fan. All I would eat was the toppings only. Then, the original Game Boy was brand new. That was the big craze, and I was pretty good at it. I was the smallest kid and some of the older 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, that specific dialogue, do you remember how it happened? Did you grasp the meaning? At the time, I wasn't fully aware of what the word taboo meant, but I knew it was provocative and it got a big 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 humorous. “My mom thought hard about it.” How it originated, according to family lore, was they were still developing characters. Some character lines were written into the script, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it wasn't necessarily improv, but they developed it during shooting 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 need time" and took a day or two. She deliberated carefully. She said she was hesitant, but she thought it could end up as one of the iconic quotes from the movie and she was right.