She’s Home Alone While on the Mat : At 14, Wolf Balances Acting, Academics, Judo in a Dizzying Teen-Age Lifestyle

Hillary Wolf doesn’t have a problem trying to pattern herself after actress Demi Moore and 1988 Olympic judo silver medalist Lynn Roethke.

She has done both since she was 7, and she’s already 14.

In an unusual mixture of careers, Wolf has become one of Hollywood’s hot young actresses. She has starred in several movies, including “Home Alone” and the soon-to-be-released “Step Kids” while becoming one of the nation’s best young competitors in judo.

In this year’s judo competition at the U.S. Olympic Festival, she was the youngest athlete by nearly three years. Sunday, she won the only match of the women’s 99-pound division, defeating Jean Kilmer of Colorado Springs in less than 15 seconds.

In a sport in which opponents are thrown and pulled to the ground and strangleholds are common, the 5-foot-9, 99-pound Wolf does not look the part of a competitor when she is out of her judogi. But, once she is on the mat, the sport comes naturally.

“She moves really well on the mat,” said Margaret Catt, Festival women’s judo coach. “She is very young and will probably move up in divisions. But she is doing very well at this stage.”

Wolf will have to move up to have a chance to make the 1992 U.S. team because 99 pounds is not an Olympic division. The 1992 Summer Olympics will be the first time women’s judo will be an official sport.

She says judo is an important part of her life, but so is acting. She tries to keep both in perspective.

“Neither acting nor judo is my life,” said Wolf, who lives in Chicago and will begin ninth grade in the fall. “They are both just a part of my life. I am just a normal kid who acts and does judo.”

Said Catt: “It seems to me that she has to stay in judo to balance out her life. She’s a pretty typical teen-ager who gets along with everybody.”

Wolf began her acting career when she was 5 after a friend encouraged her to take some photos that led to a small part in Alan Arkin’s “A Matter of Principle.” She later had a larger role in “Waiting for the Light” with Shirley MacLaine and Teri Garr.

“That was my first big part,” said Wolf, who missed her 1989 summer judo competition to shoot the movie.

Even though “Waiting for the Light” was not a box-office hit, it helped Wolf land a role in “Home Alone,” which led to her starring role in the upcoming “Step Kids.”

“I am not like most people who make acting their life,” Wolf said. “To me, acting is not so important where if I don’t get a part it affects my life.”

To make sure that she does not get caught up in the Hollywood lifestyle, Wolf makes only one film a year. It is important to her that her judo career does not suffer because of her acting. So far, it hasn’t.

In 1988, Wolf finished first in the junior nationals, the U.S. Junior Olympics and the American-Canadian Championships. In 1989, she won the Junior Olympics, despite her filming schedule. She won again last year in the nationals, the Junior Olympics and the Am-Can championships.

Wolf began judo because her older brother had begun training in the sport. At first, she did not take judo seriously until she competed in her first Junior Olympics.

“I got my butt kicked there,” Wolf said. “So, I said to myself, ‘Losing is not that great, so I better work at this.’ That is when judo became more a part of my life and became more time-consuming.”

With the backing of her parents, Wolf has learned how to keep up with her judo, acting and academics at the same time.

At times, it has been tough for her to keep her grades up because of her traveling schedule. Every year Wolf has had to spend weeks in Los Angeles shooting a movie and weekends away for judo tournaments. But she maintains a B average.

Wolf’s next goal is to compete in next year’s Olympics, which she acknowledges is a longshot.

“I will be at a disadvantage because of my age and weight, but it’s worth a try,” she said.