On the big screen, Paul first appeared in the independent "American Nightmare" (1982), but considers her role as a ski-loving counterpart to Kristy McNichol in "Just the Way You Are" (1984) as her screen debut, although her turn in "Christine" as the comely young teen in competition with a devil-incarnate car, was released in 1983. She has also co-starred opposite Kevin Costner in "American Flyer" (1985), in "Dragnet" (1987), and more recently starred in "The Paperboy" (1994), as a woman who moves back to her hometown and discovers the boy next door is a murderer.