Following the release of "The Fast and the Furious", Brewster took a break from acting to complete her B. A. in English at Yale from which she graduated in 2003. She returned to the screen when she played as a lesbian criminal mastermind in the action comedy "D.E.B.S." (2004). "A.V. Club" dismissed the development of Brewster on-screen relationship with co-star Sarah Foster, writing that ""D.E.B.S." oscillates between the glib camp smirkiness of its half-hearted action send-up and the thudding earnestness of its romance". It was distributed in limited release. She starred as the love interest of a high school student in the 1970s in the independent teen drama "Nearing Grace" (2005), which was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival.