Turner next played Cheryl Dunye's lover in Dunye's "The Watermelon Woman" (1996), a quasi-documentary look into black lesbian culture which utilized still photos and film recreations to create the fictional character of a black lesbian screen actress from the 30s and 40s. She acted in "Kiss Me, Guido" (as an "indignant lesbian"), "Chasing Amy" (as a singer) and "Latin Boys Go to Hell" before starring as an American dominatrix abroad in Stuart Urban's "Preaching to the Perverted" (all 1997), which she followed with roles in Scott King's "Treasure Island" (premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival) and Kevin Smith's "Dogma" (1999). As for screenwriting, she collaborated with Mary Harron on the script of Harron's controversial "American Psycho" (2000, in which Turner had a small part), helping to take out the violent, repulsive stuff that most people could hardly stand to read in the Bret Easton Ellis novel to concentrate on its scathing 80s satire. She and Harron have also collaborated on an as yet-to-be-produced screenplay about 1950s pin-up girl Bettie Page with Turner attached to portray the starring role.