text: After completing Scream 2, Gayheart was cast in a lead role in the slasher film Urban Legend (1998), in which she portrayed the best friend of a college student (Alicia Witt) who suspects their friends are being murdered according to urban legends. The same year, she appeared onstage at Toronto's Canon Theatre in a production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo, opposite Rhea Perlman and Perrey Reeves. In 1999, Gayheart starred in the black comedy film Jawbreaker with Rose McGowan, Julie Benz, and Judy Greer as girls in an exclusive clique in their high school who inadvertently kill their friend. Though the film was a box-office failure, it went on to earn a cult following in subsequent decades.
  Gayheart starred as the waitress in the Train music video for the 1999 song "Meet Virginia".
  In 2000, Gayheart had a lead role in the vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter, as well as a lead role in the thriller Shadow Hours, opposite Balthazar Getty. She also had a cameo appearance in Urban Legends: Final Cut, the sequel to Urban Legend.
  In 2002, Gayheart was hired for the role of Inara Serra on the television series Firefly but was fired after only one day of filming. Show creator Joss Whedon said that a lack of chemistry existed between  the rest of the cast and her. The role was recast with actress Morena Baccarin, who reportedly filmed her first scene the day she was accepted for the role. None of Gayheart's work was used.