Following a playful photo session with her mother and the submission of the results to a local modeling agency, Everhart was on a plane to Paris later that year. By the end of the following year, she had graced the covers of such fashion mainstays as
ELLE and
Glamour magazine (for which she was the first-ever red-haired cover girl). Though a riding accident in which she broke her back at the age of 19 nearly put an end to her aspirations, Everhart eventually recovered through physical therapy. Early in her career, Everhart was advised she would never be a top model because she was a redhead. However, she succeeded in her chosen career and posed for numerous publications. She appeared in several issues of the annual
Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, starting in
1995. After years of public insistence she would never pose nude, Everhart did just that for the February
2000 issue of
Playboy. She was ranked #98 on the
FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2003.
Everhart made her film debut in 1993 with the
Arnold Schwarzenegger action-comedy
Last Action Hero. She has since appeared in such features as
Tales From the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood (1996),
Denial (1998),
Trigger Happy (1996) and
Gunblast Vodka (2000).
Other movies she has appeared in include
Jade (1995),
Executive Target (1997),
Another 9 1/2 Weeks (
1997) and
Bare Witness (2001). She also appeared in the 2004 television series
Celebrity Mole: Yucatan, in which she was the rogue agent sabotaging the group. She was one of the "Gingers" on the second season of
The Real Gilligan's Island (the other was
Erika Eleniak), but left the show when she accidentally cut her finger severely enough to sever
tendons and require surgery.