Pope already had a number of film and television roles to her credit (Disturbing Behavior, Nightman) when she burst onto the American scene playing the pivotal character Sam McPherson on the WB's high-school drama Popular. Since then she has portrayed a heroin addict in Trapped in a Purple Haze, played opposite Leelee Sobieski in The Glass House, appeared in Jeff Probst's Finder's Fee, and in Orange County. The Globe and Mail stated, "she is part of a phenomenon that's seen Hollywood agents looking more and more to Canada for fresh faces", and listed her as one of Canada's "Young Leaders."[citation needed] In 2005 she was a guest-star in an episode of FOX's Tru Calling and played an aspiring social worker in Eighteen, co-starring Brendan Fletcher, Alan Cumming and Ian McKellen.

Pope found out the day after her high school graduation that she was going to Romania to shoot a feature film. "Acting was always an innate ambition", said Pope. "It was where I belonged."[citation need