Judie Aronson is a name that many people might not know outside of the 80s unless they were a fan or have had something to do with her personally since her movie and TV career was fairly short and she hasn’t appeared on screen since a short film in 2016. A lot of people might be able to remember Hilly from Weird Science, or perhaps that memory has slipped. In any case Judie has largely stayed away from the screen for several years now and has been doing just fine despite this as she’s become something of an entrepreneur. The 80s stars definitely had a wide and varied assortment of types throughout the years and while some of them stayed the course and tried their best to make the 90s their passage to the new millennium others just didn’t appear to have what it took or, barring that, were more interested in other avenues once their time on the screen was over. In her own way Judie did attempt to become something bigger on screen but if one looks back at her history it was never that likely that she was going to be much more than a supporting character that showed up occasionally and offered what she could to any given situation. It’s not a mark against her acting skills or talent in any way, but rather a bit of commentary on the fact that her career really don’t go that far and it was a little too obvious that she was destined for something else that was away from the camera.
In all fairness it can be said that she tried and that she stuck around for a while and had some success here and there, but in terms of a successful run Judie kind of faltered a bit since by the 90s she was being featured more as an extra or guest star in various shows and at times it was hard to even notice she was there. Some folks enter Hollywood with big dreams and a desire to do whatever they can to make their career work,while others kind of drift in and then drift out without a lot of people noticing. Where she’s really excelled, and this has been proven, has been at business since she’s opened several shops throughout the years and founded and owned her own Pilates studio that apparently has done quite well. There are a lot worse fates for someone that thought they were going to get into acting and make it work, as there have been those that have disappeared from public life entirely out of either shame or simple defeat, but thankfully Judie went back to what she was truly good at and has been doing her thing ever since in a very impressive way. Acting might have been a good idea at the time, but unless someone can really grow into the business and find the possibility of enjoying a long and successful run then it’s usually time to find something else they’re good at and see if that different path is the better one. With Judie she’d already made it obvious that her business acumen was sharp enough to get her off the ground and running, so acting eventually became less of a priority.
One notable moment in her history on screen that hopefully got her to thinking about whether it was all worth it or not came during her first movie actually since she starred in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The scene, which would be her character’s death scene, took place in the middle of the lake, which at that time of year was absolutely freezing. Judie apparently started crying as the scene was taking so long that it’s easy to think that she might have gone numb after a while. It sounds as though the director didn’t pay enough attention to her, which angered the stuntman that was playing Jason Voorhees at the time and prompted a confrontation that finally allowed the scene to get done. Unfortunately Judie did suffer a bout of hypothermia due to this scene, something that should have likely made her think twice about working with the same director and could have left her wondering if such a career was worth it if she would have to go through such moments. It’s true that such instances aren’t the norm and that every actor has had to go through something they didn’t like, but such torment, especially that which can be adverse to a person’s health, is something to really think about when considering how far one wants to go in their career. Judie soldiered on however and made a go of it for many years before finally saying goodbye to the spotlight. At this point it sounds fair to say that she might look back at her career fondly, but is still happy to be where she’s at.
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