While working in
New York City as a
storyboard artist for multimedia presentations, Ward began
modeling to supplement her income. She was recruited by the
Wilhelmina agency and was soon featured in television commercials promoting
Maybelline cosmetics. Ward eventually moved to California to pursue acting and landed her first film role in the 1983
Burt Reynolds vehicle
The Man Who Loved Women. Her first regular role in a television drama series, as a socialite on
Dennis Weaver's short-lived
CBS series,
Emerald Point N.A.S., followed in the same year. Ward continued to land guest roles in both television and films throughout the 1980s, most notably opposite
Tom Hanks in 1986's
Nothing in Common. In 1991 she was cast as the
bohemian alcoholic Teddy Reed on
Sisters, for which she received her first Emmy for
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994.
Almost Golden remains Lifetime's most watched TV film to date. In 1995, Ward was passed over for a
Bond girl role for the 1995 movie
GoldenEye, learning that even though then-
Bond Pierce Brosnan was 42, the
casting director said "What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago". In response, she developed and produced a documentary,
The Changing Face of Beauty, about American obsession with youth and its effect on women. Later on, Ward would voice the part of former model turned villain Page Monroe in an episode ("Mean Seasons") of
The New Batman/Superman Adventures, which focused primarily on the media's obsession with youth. Ward succeeded
Candice Bergen as commercial spokesperson for
Sprint's
long distance telephone service from 1999 until 2002. She also appeared on
Frasier as supermodel/zoologist Kelly Easterbrook in the fifth season opener ("Frasier's Imaginary Friend"). When she read for the role of Lily Brooks Manning on the series
Once and Again, its creators (
Edward Zwick and
Marshall Herskovitz of
thirtysomething fame) initially deemed Ward "too beautiful" for the average single mother to identify with. Ward received her second lead actress Emmy and a
Golden Globe Award. Although she was on a brief hiatus from television, she continued to appear in feature films. She starred opposite
Kevin Costner in
The Guardian in 2006 and starred in the thriller
The Stepfather in 2009. In July 2010, Ward signed on to star in the police drama
CSI: NY, at the
seventh season's start. Ward appeared as newswoman Sharon Schieber in
Gone Girl (2014), and co-starred in
Independence Day: Resurgence, released June 2016, in which she played the President of the United States, President Lanford. She also played the leading role alongside
Nick Nolte in the political comedy series
Graves. She was in a leading role alongside
Missy Peregrym,
Zeeko Zaki and
Jeremy Sisto in the crime series
FBI. == Personal life ==