New Belle Gibson TV trailer drops for Apple Cider Vinegar airing February 6 on Netflix
Netflix has dropped the first trailer and airing date for its highly anticipated Australian true-crime series based on wellness influencer turned con artist Belle Gibson. See the video.
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Netflix has dropped the first trailer and official release date for its highly anticipated Australian true-crime series based on wellness influencer turned con artist Belle Gibson.
Apple Cider Vinegar, created by award-winning Australian writer Samantha Strauss (Nine Perfect Strangers), who scripted the show with Anya Beyersdorf and Angela Betzien, focuses on four women’s experiences with Belle.
Filmed in Melbourne, new cast members that have been announced and include Susie Porter (Wentworth), Matt Nable (Transfusion), Phoenix Raei (The Night Agent), Chai Hansen (Night Sky), Rick Davies (Offspring), Kieran Darcy-Smith (Mr Inbetween), Catherine McClements (Total Control) and Essie Davis (The Babadook).
Stars of the show including Kaitlyn Dever, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Aisha Dee will walk the red carpet alongside an extended cast at the global premiere in Sydney on February 3.
Dever, who has appeared in acclaimed films Booksmart and No One Will Save You, will play Belle and we hear more of her Australian accent after she’s clearly worked with a dialect coach in the new trailer.
We see how Belle (Dever) and Milla (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey), a blogger who actually has cancer, meet at an event and become friends online.
They both set out to cure their life-threatening cancer, which Belle doesn’t have, through health and wellness, and influencing social media.
Milla (Debnam-Carey) is seen taking a swipe at Gibson, when she asks Milla’s friend Chanelle (Aisha Dee) for help professionally.
Milla is heard saying: “Of course she does. She’s competitive with me.” It’s not long before the friendship between her and Belle turns ugly.
Milla is also seen saying one of Belle’s posts has 90,000 likes and “she does not have spleen cancer”, before she’s on the phone saying “I want to destroy her”.
Chanelle (Aisha Dee) is later seen going to try and out Belle, saying it’s a “big story”, and “she’s probably killing people with her lies”.
Viewers also see Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman) who plays Lucy, a woman struggling with cancer who idolises Milla and Belle’s online mantras despite her husband’s disapproval.
The series is loosely inspired by the non-fiction book The Woman Who Fooled the World, written by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, two journalists who uncovered the details of Belle’s deception.
It will unravel how Belle, a single mum shuns conventional cancer treatment, and is questioned over whether she really has the disease.
It has been more than a decade since Gibson gained prominence as a wellness influencer, so here’s everything you need to know before you watch the show.
WHO IS BELLE GIBSON?
Australian Annabelle “Belle” Gibson rose to fame in 2013 after claiming she was managing aggressive terminal brain cancer - and other cancers - with a healthy diet, exercise and natural remedies.
At just 21, the mum-of-one launched the highly successful The Whole Pantry mobile app, which was voted Apple’s Best Food and Drink App that year. An accompanying cookbook was published in October 2014.
The Whole Pantry app was so popular that Apple planned to launch its Apple Watch into Australia in 2015 with the app pre-installed.
In a few short years, Gibson had become one of the most popular wellness influencers in the world due to the perfect storm of the early Instagram movement and the rise of both wellness and girlboss culture.
WHAT DID SHE DO?
Well, she lied. About pretty much everything, which is why Apple Cider Vinegar’s tagline is “A true-ish story based on a lie.”
One of her biggest lies was about having cancer. Gibson claimed to have brain, blood, spleen, uterine, liver, and kidney cancers from a reaction to the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine.
She said she was given “four months to live” following the diagnosis of brain cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but ultimately “cured” herself through a healthy diet and alternative therapy.
Gibson also claimed to have had a stroke and undergone several heart surgeries, twice dying in the operating theatre.
In her Instagram account, which has now been deleted, Gibson promoted anti-vaccination messaging and the consumption of non-pasteurised raw milk, which can cause serious illness.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand states: “A wide variety of organisms that can cause illness can be found in raw milk. These include bacteria such as Campylobacter, Listeria, Salmonella, pathogenic Escherichia coli and parasites such as Cryptosporidium. The complications from infection with these organisms can be extremely severe, such as renal failure, paralysis or even death in otherwise healthy people.”
Gibson also promoted the highly controversial Gerson therapy, which the Cancer Council describes as: “The Gerson regimen supposedly cures cancer through a special diet, supplements and injections of liver extracts. The diet is meant to boost the immune system and uses coffee enemas to ‘cleanse toxins’ from the body. None of this is likely to successfully treat cancer. Some aspects, such as eating lots of fruits and vegetables, can be healthy if not taken to extremes. Others, such as coffee enemas, could be potentially harmful as well as ineffective, leading to serious illness and potentially death.”
Gerson therapy was also promoted and used by fellow Aussie influencer, Wellness Warrior Jessica Ainscough, who was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma in 2008 and died in 2015. Gibson attended her funeral.
WHAT ELSE DID BELLE GIBSON DO?
You know someone has really done a lot when you have to split their wrongdoings into two sections.
Gibson’s downfall came about when she continued lying - this time about making donations to several charities via the proceeds from The Whole Pantry app.
She publicly claimed to have given away 25 per cent of her company’s profits, including $300,000 that were ultimately never made because “app sales were not as high as forecast.”
“We have not yet donated the naive, yet confident amount of $300,000, considering the very quickly [arising] issues with cash flow versus growth, providing content, managing external expectations,” she told The Age.
“It was with nothing but good intention that we publicised that a percentage of profit from the app will be donated to charity. The intentions always were and still are to give back. The execution of this has obviously been flawed.”
HOW WAS SHE FOUND OUT?
While there were rumblings of inaccuracies in Gibson’s story, it was only when Donelly and Toscano published their report in The Age/SMH in March 2015 about the failed charity donations that things quickly began to unravel for the wellness influencer.
In late April of that year, she sat down with The Australian Women’s Weekly and when asked if she has or ever had cancer, Gibson admitted, “No. None of it’s true”.
WHERE CAN I WATCH APPLE CIDER VINEGAR?
Kaitlyn Dever, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Aisha Dee will walk the red carpet alongside extended cast, at the global premiere in Sydney, Australia on February 3 this year.
It will premiere on Netflix from February 6.
WHO IS IN THE CAST OF APPLE CIDER VINEGAR?
Cast members already announced include Kaitlyn Dever (Dopesick, Unbelievable), Alycia Debnam-Carey (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Fear the Walking Dead) Aisha Dee (The Bold Type, Safe Home), Tilda Cobham-Hervey (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, I Am Woman), Ashley Zukerman (Succession), Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin)
Newly announced cast members include: Susie Porter (Irreverent, Wentworth), Matt Nable (Transfusion, Last King of the Cross), Phoenix Raei (The Night Agent), Chai Hansen (Night Sky, The New Legends of Monkey), Rick Davies (Offspring), Kieran Darcy-Smith (Mr Inbetween), Catherine McClements (Total Control) and Essie Davis (One Day, The Babadook).
WHERE WAS APPLE CIDER VINEGAR FILMED?
The limited series was shot on-location in Melbourne, Australia with support from VicScreen through their Victorian Production Fund. Post Production took place in NSW with support through Screen NSW and their PDV Fund.
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Originally published as New Belle Gibson TV trailer drops for Apple Cider Vinegar airing February 6 on Netflix
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