Growing up, others girls wanted to dance and help their mums with the cooking. I liked to play soccer with the boys. Or I'd be off on my own, tilting mirrors towards the sun in order to burn armies of ants. That was my idea of fun.

That year Larter appeared on the cover of Maxim magazine and performed in the stage play The Vagina Monologues in New York City. In an interview with the BBC Larter explained how Ali Larter came about the role of Marigold and expressed why Ali Larter wanted to star in the film: "I was living in (director) Willard Carroll's guesthouse when he gave me the script. "
In 2007 Larter starred in Marigold as the title character alongside Salman Khan.

After a three-year-long relationship with actor Hayes MacArthur the two married in August 2009 and have a son Theodore Hayes MacArthur born December 2010. Larter achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Extinction and Resident Evil: Afterlife. Major supporting roles in the comedy Legally Blonde and the romantic comedy A Lot Like Love led her to lead roles as the titular character in Marigold and in the 2009 thriller Obsessed.