Abril became famous with American audiences with her chirpy-voiced turn as a heroin addicted ex-porn star in Pedro Almodovar's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" (1990), playing opposite five-time screen partner Antonio Banderas. Abril walked the line between damaged innocent and masochist, a representation of women and of sexual love that raised critical hackles. She also appeared as a depressive newscaster with a mother complex in Almodovar's "High Heels" (1991) and a dominatrix in his subsequent "Kika" (1993). Abril's first Hollywood venture was Barry Levinson's "Jimmy Hollywood" (1994), wherein her luscious waif-on-the-brink persona was poured into the character of a striving, dreamy, monosyllabic hairdresser, the girlfriend of Joe Pesci. The following year, she was back in France appearing in Josiane Balasko's comedy "French Twist".