[3] Lane returned to acting to appear in The Big Town, Lady Beware (both 1987) and western miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

For much of the rest of the decade, she alternately appeared in romances such as Must Love Dogs (2005) and Nights in Rodanthe (2008), and thrillers such as Fierce People (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), and Untraceable (2008).

Lane had a recurring role as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in Man of Steel (2013), and subsequent films of the DC Extended Universe.

The Swans (for which she won a further Primetime Emmy nomination), the Scott Z. Burns anthology series Extrapolations for Apple TV+, the animated Pixar sequel Inside Out 2 (reprising her role as Riley's mother), the Netflix series A Man in Full, based on the Tom Wolfe novel of the same name, and most recently, the thriller film Anniversary set to be released in 2025.

Her father, Burton Eugene Lane, was a Manhattan drama coach who ran an acting workshop with John Cassavetes, worked as a cab driver, and later taught humanities at City College.

[6] When Lane was 15, she declared her independence from her father and flew to Los Angeles for a week with actor and friend Christopher Atkins with whom she starred in the 1981 film Child Bride of Short Creek.

[7][8] Lane began acting professionally at the age of six at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York, where she appeared in a production of Medea.

When Lane was 12 years old, she had a role in Joseph Papp's production of The Cherry Orchard with Meryl Streep and Irene Worth.

[5] At this time, Lane was enrolled in an accelerated program at Hunter College High School; however, her grades suffered from her busy schedule.

[5] When Lane was 13, she turned down a role in Runaways on Broadway to make her feature-film debut opposite Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance.

Both films featured memorable performances from a number of young male actors who later became leading men in the next decade (as well as members of the so-called "Brat Pack"), including Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, Mickey Rourke, Nicolas Cage, and Matt Dillon.

[16] However, Streets of Fire (she turned down Splash and Risky Business for this film)[9][3] and The Cotton Club, were both commercial and critical failures, and her career languished as a result.

She came very close to being cast as Vivian Ward in 1990's blockbuster hit Pretty Woman (which had a much darker script at the time), but due to scheduling conflicts, was unable to take the role.

[22] In 2000, Lane had supporting roles as Mark Wahlberg's love interest in The Perfect Storm[23] and Frankie Muniz's talkative mother in My Dog Skip.

[32] Lane then starred in Cinema Verite (2011), an HBO movie about the making of the first reality television show, An American Family.

Lane earned Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, and Golden Globe award nominations for her portrayal of Pat Loud.

[34] Following the success of Cinema Verite, Lane starred in Zack Snyder's Superman film Man of Steel, playing Martha Kent.

[39] In 2015, Lane appeared in the drama Every Secret Thing (alongside Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Banks),[40] had a voice role in the Pixar animated feature Inside Out, and co-starred in the biopic Trumbo (opposite Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren), which received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Ensemble Cast.

[41] Besides Justice League, Lane appeared in two other films in 2017: Eleanor Coppola's Paris Can Wait and Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House.

[42][43] In the end of 2012, and before her divorce from Josh Brolin in early 2013, Lane returned to her theater roots and headlined a production of the David Cromer directed Sweet Bird of Youth (by Tennessee Williams) at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

Lane played Princess Kosmonopolis, a fading Hollywood movie star, opposite Finn Wittrock, who portrayed Chance, her attractive gigolo.

[44] Lane returned to theatre in the winter of 2015, starring with Tony Shalhoub in the off-Broadway original production of Bathsheba Doran's The Mystery of Love and Sex.

[46] In 2018, Lane starred in the Amazon original miniseries The Romanoffs, which premiered in October, and as Annette Shepherd in the final season of Netflix's hit series House of Cards, which was released on the streaming service on November 2.

[47][48] These roles "seemingly "mark[ed] rare TV appearance[s] for Lane, who has primarily worked in film throughout her career.

[51] Lane also co-starred with Kevin Costner in the 2020 thriller Let Him Go (a No.1 box office hit during the COVID pandemic) [52] and with Meryl Streep in the 2023 Apple TV anthology series Extrapolations.

The Swans on FX (for which she won a further Primetime Emmy nomination), played the female lead in the Netflix show A Man in Full, and also reprised her voice role as Riley's Mom in the sequel Inside Out 2 (which has become the most successful animated film in history).

[59] Lane is also involved in several charities, including Heifer International, which focuses on world hunger,[60] Artists for Peace and Justice, a Hollywood organization that supports Haiti relief, and the BrandAID Project.

[63] On August 22, 2014, Lane was honored for her work with Heifer International at its third annual Beyond Hunger: A Place at the Table gala at the Montage Beverly Hills.

Some of the plays she performed in include The Trojan Women, Electra, Bertolt Brecht's The Good Woman of Szechuan, Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding, Paul Foster's The Silver Queen, and Shakespeare's As You Like It.

In 1989, Lane returned to the stage to play Olivia in Twelfth Night at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.