Carrere's career trajectory continued on course with appearances in "Wayne's World 2" (1993) and director James Cameron's spy action thriller "True Lies" (1994), in which she played the villainous Juno Skinner opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. But the actress soon began accepting leading roles in lesser movies, appearing in a string of routine (or worse) thrillers and comedic misfires. She teamed with her husband, Los Angeles restaurateur-turned-movie-producer Elie Samaha to try to craft vehicles for herself, but garnered little attention save for a reality-based indie film "20 Dates" (1998), in which she goes out on an on-camera date with filmmaker Myles Berkowitz (despite being married to the film's producer, a union that ultimately dissolved in 2000; Samaha would later go on to become a major Hollywood player). In 1999 she took the lead role in the syndicated action-adventure television series "Relic Hunter," playing globe-hunting, black-belted archeology professor Sydney Fox. The series aired internationally until 2002, the same year Carrere's career got a shot in the arm with a role that did not trade on her exotic good looks; instead, her smooth voice breathed life into Lilo's struggling older sister Nani in Disney's Hawaiian-themed animated feature film "Lilo & Stitch." Still, Carrere had not entirely embraced family-friendly fare: having scrupulously avoided nude scenes in the past despite her sex symbol status, she appeared undraped in a major pictorial feature in the January 2003 issue of Playboy Magazine.

Once interest in Carrere was renewed after the spread, she began a recurring voiceover role as the Martian Queen on the animated “Duck Dodgers” (Cartoon Network, 2003-2005). She returned to live action with a leading role in the Lifetime movie “Torn Apart” (2004), playing a doctor whose husband and daughter are kidnapped by a vindictive madman, forcing her to choose who will live and who will die. In “Supernova” (Hallmark Channel, 2005), she was a tough government agent assigned to guard over a young scientist (Luke Perry) who discovered that a meteor struck the sun, which will result in a catastrophic supernova. After appearing alongside Ving Rhames and Ja Rule in the redemption drama, “Back in the Day” (BET, 2005), Carrere joined eight other stars in an effort not to embarrass themselves on “Dancing with the Stars” (ABC, 2005- ), a live ballroom dancing competition that paired celebrities with professional dancers to perform the Quickstep, Fox Trot and Paso Doble, among other dances. Carrere displayed beauty, grace and charm during the course of her run, but was voted off midway through the competition.