Bruckner began her career at age 11. She appeared in commercials, in a few television pilots, and on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in 1999. At the age of 15, Bruckner got her first lead role in the independent film Blue Car (2002), in which she played a high school student involved in an affair with her Teacher, played by David Strathairn. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that Bruckner "negotiates this difficult script with complete conviction." Bruckner received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "Best Female Lead" for the role.