Pop Culture | Movies | 90s
10 Facts About 'Kindergarten Cop' That Will Have You Yelling "It's Not A Too-mah!"
Back when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the biggest actor in Hollywood (both literally and in terms of sales), he occasionally decided to shed his tough-guy image and opt to do a comedy instead.
One of the earliest examples of this is 1990's Kindergarten Cop, a movie that managed to mix both action and comedy in a way that few are able to top. We still love it, but we're willing to bet you might not know some of these facts about making it...
Arnie wasn't the first choice to play John Kimble.
The studio offered the role to both Bill Murray and Patrick Swayze, who both turned it down. Arnold took an interest in it after having just recently become a father.
He ended up shaping how a lot of the movie was done.
Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman was brought on at Arnold's request, as the two were friends and he felt Reitman would be a good fit. The Governator also demanded that fitness be a central theme to the film, and both he and Reitman agreed it needed to feature broken homes, child abuse, and family life.
Pamela Reed had fun with her "Austrian" accent.
For the scenes where she pretends to be Arnie's sister, Reed had fun imitating the actor's trademark thick accent. "Inside of an hour he was calling me 'my leetle Pemelah' and I was calling him 'my deah Ah-nold.' "
Arnold was pretty busy while making the movie.
During a day off from filming, he had to fly back to Los Angeles and head to an entirely different film set. Why, you might ask? To film the teaser trailer for a little movie called Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The facts just get more wild from here...
The kids actually loved Arnold.
Their real-life reactions to him were the total opposite of the movie. They not only loved having him around, but would regularly climb him like a jungle gym.
Emma was Ivan Reitman's favorite kid.
Speaking about young actress Sarah Rose Karr, Reitman said "She marched to her own drummer. If she wants to stand, let her stand. If she wants to sit, let her sit." Guess she really was a princess, not a policeman.
Arnold did something for this movie he'd never done before.
He says two short sentences in German while carrying Pamela into the motel, something which up until that point, he'd never done in a movie. He wouldn't do it again until Escape Plan in 2013.
The movie had to be delayed because of another movie.
Ivan Reitman was in the process of directing Ghostbusters II, which wouldn't release until Christmas 1989. Because of this, Kindergarten Cop was delayed until Christmas 1990.
One actor failed spectacularly at trying to get into the movie.
Elijah Wood, who as on his way to becoming a bonafide child star, auditioned for the movie but was rejected. He later commented that it was "the worst audition I ever did."
Arnold didn't have to act very hard to appear nervous around the kids.
According to him, when he started working with the kids, "I was sweating. I felt like the character in the movie."