[3] Ast enjoyed partying in her twenties on Fire Island, and her boisterous personality allowed her to meet and befriend influential people.

[3] Ast made her screen debut after meeting director John Schlesinger on Fire Island, who cast her as a party guest in his film Midnight Cowboy (1969).

In the early 1970s, with Pat Cleveland, Connie Cook, Alva Chinn, Anjelica Huston, Karen Bjornson, among others, Ast became one of Halston's favored troupe of models, nicknamed the Halstonettes.

She appeared in films such as The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976), Foul Play (1978), The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), and Reform School Girls (1986).

[5][6] She became resentful of Los Angeles as her film career stalled and she went to New York to do Nine, a Broadway musical based on Federico Fellini’s movie 8 1/2, but was dismissed after three months.