The Austrian Oak is best known as an iconic tough guy. Yet, in the midst of his star power in the late 20th century, he also starred in several genuinely hilarious comedies. A prime example is Kindergarten Cop, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this holiday season.
In the 1990 movie, Schwarzenegger portrays a hardened detective who poses as a schoolteacher to catch a killer. During the film's runtime, the procedural element acts as a simple backdrop for Arnold to have charming scenes with children. Arguably the most famous involves a little boy named Joseph, who spontaneously stands up and declares the former bodybuilder, “It's boys who have a penis, and girls get a vagina.” Arnold replies icily, “I appreciate the insight.”
The boy behind the line was brought to life by child star Miko Hughes. His career featured a recurring role on Full House playing the antagonist to the famous sisters and the pivotal role of the youngster who comes back in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Hughes remains active today, with several projects in development. He also engages with fans at the con circuit. Recently recalled his memories from the set of Kindergarten Cop over three decades on.
Q: To begin, how old were you when you filmed Kindergarten Cop?
Miko Hughes: My understanding is I was four. I was the smallest of all the kids on set.
Wow, I can't remember being four. Do you retain any flashes from that time?
Yeah, to a degree. They're flashes. They're like visual recollections.
Do you recall how you landed the job in Kindergarten Cop?
My mother, mainly would accompany me to auditions. Frequently it was like a cattle call. There'd be 20, 30 kids and we'd all just have to wait, go into the room, be in there for a very short time, deliver a quick 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 any recollection of meeting Arnold? What was your feeling about him?
He was incredibly nice. He was playful. He was pleasant, which arguably stands to reason. It would have been odd if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom, that surely wouldn't foster a productive set. He was great to work with.
“It'd be weird if he was a dick to all the kids in the classroom.”
I understood he was a big action star because that's what my parents told me, but I had never really seen his movies. I felt the importance — it was exciting — but he didn't really intimidate me. He was just fun and I only wanted to hang out with him when he was available. He was occupied, of course, but he'd sometimes engage here and there, and we would dangle from his limbs. 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 coolest device, that funky old 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 have a real silver 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 amusing, that movie was this cultural thing. It was a huge film, and it was such an amazing experience, and you would think, in retrospect, I would want my memories to be of working with Arnold, the direction of Ivan Reitman, traveling to Oregon, the production design, 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 pepperoni off the top. Then, the Nintendo Game Boy was new. That was the big craze, and I was proficient. I was the youngest and some of the other children would bring me their Game Boys to get past hard parts on games because I knew how, and I was felt accomplished. So, it's all childhood recollections.
OK, the infamous quote, do you remember how it happened? Did you understand the words?
At the time, I probably didn't know what the word shocking meant, but I understood it was edgy and it caused the crew to chuckle. I knew it was kind of something I wasn't supposed to do, but I was given special permission in this case because it was comedic.
“She really wrestled with it.”
How it came about, according to family lore, was they were still developing characters. Some character lines were established early on, but once they had the whole cast on the set, it was more of a collaboration, but they developed it during shooting and, presumably someone in charge came to my mom and said, "There's a concept. We want Miko to say this. Are you okay with this?" My mom paused. She said, "I need to consider this, let me sleep on it" and took a short while. She deliberated carefully. She said she was hesitant, but she believed it would likely become one of the unforgettable moments from the movie and her instinct was correct.
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