Life is no horror show for Cassidy Gifford

Gymnastics, ballet and violin admittedly were among the 100 things Cassidy Gifford tried but didn't stick with during her childhood.

Acting is the one thing that became a lifelong passion for the 21-year-old daughter of Today show co-host and actress Kathie Lee Gifford and NFL Hall of Famer Frank Gifford, though drama class is a complete bore to her character — and might end up being the death of her — in the horror film The Gallows (in theaters Friday).

The young actress' on-screen persona, also named Cassidy, has bigger problems: Her small-town Nebraska high school is mounting the 20th anniversary of a play that involved the accidental death of a teenage boy, and she and a few classmates are locked in before opening night with what seems to be a vengeful spirit.

After being typecast as "the sweet little blonde whatever" in her limited time in Hollywood and having most auditions be for "a super cookie-cutter, Partridge Family-type thing," playing "this mean, stuck-up cheerleader who's honestly the girl we all knew in high school and didn't like was fun for me," says Gifford, who also starred in last year's Christian drama God's Not Dead. "I really hope I'm not like that at all."

The Gallows could be a breakout role for the New York-born Gifford, though she has been around show business her entire life because of her famous parents. She played the pig who built the brick house in a first-grade production of The Three Little Pigs and became serious about her acting when she was 9. "Honestly, my favorite part of the day was going to play practice," she says.

No doors were ever opened for her because of her family. "I wanted to do it completely independently from my mom's career and my dad — well, maybe not my dad because it's not like I ever had a chance in pro football. That was not going to happen," Gifford says, laughing. "But my mom never once imposed."

Gifford's mother was around when she met Gallows writer/directors Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing for the first time.

They filmed the movie in 2012 with another actress in Gifford's role, but when they went back to do reshoots, the woman had lost 40 pounds and didn't look at all like the character. In the middle of scrambling to find someone new, Gifford was recommended to them and the filmmakers liked what they saw in photos of her.

"We didn't know who she was at first," Lofing says. "We were like, 'What's she doing in all these pictures with Kathie Lee? Are they friends or something?' "

From the first audition, however, Gifford was strong in her performance and in handling scary situations such as getting pulled on the ground via noose, Cluff adds. "The terror and the things she had to express were no easy task, but she was able to do it and make it look easy."

Gifford feels as if she's in "a weird limbo" as someone who's known in some circles — like the morning-show crowd — but also is a fresh face in Hollywood, though she's grateful for her conventional East Coast upbringing.

"I talk to my mom like any other kid talks to their mom when they live across the country," says Gifford, who now lives in Los Angeles. "You call home and check in about what you ate for your breakfast or if I went for a run that day or if I was in a fight with my friend. It's so normal."