Her fair skin, contrasted with dark, soulful eyes, made her a natural for sensitive teen types in Lucas (1986) and Square Dance (1987), but she really scored as the blackgarbed, death-obsessed daughter in Beetlejuice (1988), a high-profile hit comedy that opened doors for her. She was convincing as the child-bride cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire! a high-school conspirator in Heathers (both 1989), a small-town weirdo in Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael the longsuffering daughter of Cher in Mermaids and the sensitive blond girlfriend of Edward Scissorhands (all 1990). That nonstop work schedule caused her to bow out of The Godfather, Part III but her career picked up with the female lead in Francis Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a project she brought to the director's attention. Martin Scorsese then chose her to play the deceptively docile fiancée in The Age of Innocence (1993), for which she earned a Supporting Oscar nomination. She followed with The House of the Spirits (also 1993), then starred in Reality Bites and earned a Best Actress nomination for her enchanting work as Jo March in Little Women (both 1994), a pet project of hers.