Callie Ross

Callista "Calie" Ross is the protagonist of the 2014 Lifetime original movie Killing Daddy.

She is played by Elizabeth Gillies, who also played Jade West on Victorious.

Calie is first introduced working as a waitress in a restaurant when she's called into the boss's office, where her boss fires her for stealing money from the cash register, which she denies doing. She then leaves in a huff and returns to the hotel, where she is found by Jake, her ex-boyfriend. Jake demands to speak with Calie, who finishes packing her bags and escapes through the window. While Jake is arguing with the hotel manager, Calie steals his truck and makes a getaway.

Later that night, Jake's truck runs out of gas, much to Calie's frustration, and she grudgingly decides to call home to Philadelphia. Emma Granger, the Ross family's housekeeper, accepts Calie's call and informs her that her father, George, suffered a stroke six weeks ago.

It's then shown in a flashback that Calie had a heated confrontation with her father, who tried to arrange for Calie to be taken in and trained by an attorney, William Hanover, since she refused to attend school; Calie reacted angrily to this, perceiving this as an attempt by her father to cut her out of his life and inheritance, and she told George that she hated him. Another flashback shows that Calie engaged in self-cutting and rebuffed her father's concern for her, believing he's only worried about his public image. More flashbacks show that Calie, as a child, found her mother's body after she had committed suicide due to her mental illness. Calie returns to Philadelphia, where she receives a warm welcome from Emma, her older half-sister Laura, and Hanover. When she visits her bedridden, helpless father in the hospital, Calie pretends to be grieved by George's condition and asks to be alone with him; once alone, she proceeds to maliciously taunt George and vow to get what she believes she deserves.

George is sent home to be cared for by his family, and Calie goes through his desk and finds a new draft of his last will and testament, which states that Calie is to receive a large sum of money while Emma is to receive everything else; Calie, however, believes that George is cutting her out. She then finds the old draft of George's will, which grants her everything he owns in the event of his death; she likes this draft better and then schemes to kill her father to get her inheritance.

Calie arranges a meeting with Hanover at a bar, where she asks him for legal advice and seduces him into a sexual encounter in a hotel room, secretly videotaping their tryst on her phone. After Calie leaves Hanover's room and gets into her car, Jake pops up in the backseat and holds a knife to her throat, demanding that she pay him. Calie then promises to pay Jake if he kills her father for her.

The next night, Calie volunteers to feed George and keep him company. However, she dumps out the special food George needs and again taunts her father by eating Emma's special soup in front of him and recounting what happened the night before. Calie then leaves George's bedroom, unlocks one of the house's door, and watches TV with Emma. Jake sneaks into the house through the unlocked door, smothers George, and sneaks back out. Emma decides to turn in and heads upstairs, only to discover George's body.

At George's funeral, Calie sees Jake in the hallway and excuses herself to confront him. Jake insists on getting his money, but Calie orders him to win and he demands that she come by his hotel room with the money. When questioned about Jake by Emma, Calie falsely replies that Jake was a groundskeeper who showed her where the bathroom was.

Next, Calie corners Hanover in the bathroom and blackmails him into getting rid of George's will and replacing it with the old one by showing him the footage she recorded of the two of them having sex, threatening to show it to his wife. Hanover assents to her wishes, and Calie is granted ownership of her father's belongings; this, however, arouses Emma's suspicions, since George told her that he was going to leave his house to her.

After finding out from Hanover that she essentially can't immediately access her new wealth, Calie visits Jake in his hotel room and gives him $500 as a down payment. Jake, unsatisfied, reveals that he recorded Calie telling him of her plot to have him murder her father so she could get his inheritance. Calie shoots Jake with her father's handgun, pours wine all over the room, and sets fire to it before leaving.

Sometime later, Calie hurtfully tells Emma that she needs to think about what she's going to do now that George is gone and announces she's going shopping. She then goes on a shopping spree; Emma, meanwhile, begins putting the pieces together and realizes Calie's true colors.

Later that night, Calie returns home, where she is confronted by Emma about Jake, whom she saw on a news report saying that he had been killed in a fire and that he was a native of Independence, Missouri, the place from which Calie returned to Philadelphia. Caught, Calie picks up George's gun and tries to shoot Emma, only to find that Emma took the remaining bullets out earlier. She then knocks Emma out and ties her up. After Emma regains consciousness, Calie holds her at gunpoint and Emma tearfully explains that Calie's mother was mentally ill, that Calie likely inherited the same condition, and that George did everything he could to help his daughter, including having her institutionalized. Hanover arrives and sees what's going on, and Calie eventually breaks down into tears and admits she is crazy.

The film ends with Calie in a mental hospital, where she watches a preacher talk about giving to others before giving to self until a nurse walks up and gives her medication. Emma and Laura arrive to visit Calie, who is seen smiling evilly before the screen fades to black.