Playing fraudster Belle Gibson ‘felt like a calling’ for Kaitlyn Dever

This story is part of the February 2 edition of Sunday Life.See all 14 stories.

When actor Kaitlyn Dever landed the role of infamous cancer-faker Belle Gibson, she says it felt “almost a weird calling”, adding “to say this story is personal would be an understatement. It runs very deep for me.”

But the 28-year-old star of TV shows such as Dopesick and Unbelievable was torn about leaving her home in Los Angeles for Melbourne to take on the role in 2023 because her mother, Kathy, was living with stage 4 breast cancer at the time.

It was Kathy, who had also read the script for the new Netflix series, Apple Cider Vinegar, who urged Dever, the oldest of her three daughters, to do it. Kathy had found an affinity with its themes, such as the search for hope in prolonging life.

So Dever, raised in Dallas and then LA, began honing an Australian accent before flying here to take on the role of Gibson. Gibson had built a following a decade earlier as a self-styled wellness sage and creator of the lifestyle app The Whole Pantry. Gibson had crafted a story around her “survival” of a malignant brain tumour that was later exposed as fraudulent.

The series is created by Samantha Strauss and inspired by the book The Woman Who Fooled the World: The True Story of a Fake Wellness Guru by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, investigative journalists at The Age. Billed as a “true-ish story based on a lie”, it investigates Gibson’s childhood, early adulthood and life as a single mother in an attempt to understand the psychology behind her actions.

Kaitlyn Dever’s mother, Kathy, who died after a battle with stage 4 breast cancer, urged Dever to audition for the part.Credit: Sylve Colless for InStyle Australia/Headpress

The series also stars Alycia Debnam-Carey as Milla Blake, who tries to treat her own real diagnosis of a rare soft-tissue sarcoma with hourly juices and multiple coffee enemas instead of conventional chemotherapy. The character bears a strong resemblance to the late wellness blogger Jessica Ainscough, who Gibson unsuccessfully attempted to befriend. (Gibson’s lack of success in this regard didn’t stop her turning up at Ainscough’s funeral in 2015.)

“It was a very difficult time for me to leave my mum, honestly, to go out to Australia,” Dever tells Sunday Life, speaking from the San Fernando Valley. (It’s mid-January and the hellish bushfires across Los Angeles are never far from her mind.)“But Mom thought it was a cool story, so she said, ‘You have to go.’ So I did it for her. I did it because of her.” Sadly, Kathy died in February 2024.

What are Dever’s thoughts on people who claim cancer can be cured with alternative medicine and good nutrition? “One of the bigger reasons I took this role was because of my opinion on holistic care,” she says, choosing her words carefully for this, her first interview about the series.

“For a very long time, I became obsessed with the idea you could [treat cancer holistically]. I followed many people who live a life that is very holistic, supplementing their cancer treatment with juicing and organic foods and all of that. I definitely consider myself 50-50, right down the middle, with my opinion, even after my mum passed away. I think there’s a lot she did that helped her live as long as she did with stage 4.”

Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson in Apple Cider Vinegar.Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Dever declines to specify what treatments her mother underwent over her 14 years with the disease. “My thoughts on it are complicated for many reasons. I still do think that Western medicine is incredibly important, incredibly advanced these days, but I think holistic health is also important.”

Was she able to approach the role of Gibson without judgment? “I never wanted to judge her [Gibson] too hard because I wanted to understand her headspace and where she was at in her life and her past as best I could. By that I mean ‘our Belle’ [in the series] – and our Belle is someone who is so broken and really craving love and community in a way that is heartbreaking.”

It probably helps that, as an American, Dever has spoken to few Australians, as they would likely have a dim view of the real Gibson. Although she read The Woman Who Fooled the World, she says she “came in with fresh ears, fresh eyes, and I think that helped me approach it in a way that served the character and story”.

And as an American, her Australian accent holds up surprisingly well. Dever largely attributes this to voice and dialect coach Jenny Kent, “an angel sent from above”. Dever only had a few months to hone the accent before production began, and did Zoom calls with Kent from LA.

Belle Gibson, pictured outside the Federal Court in Melbourne, 2019, and (inset) the book by Age journalists Nick Toscano and Beau Donnelly that inspired the Netflix series.Credit: Darrian Traynor

“You do similar things with your mouth that you do with an American southern accent,” she says. “I feel I’m a good copycat, and if I hear something, I can repeat the sound.”

Her hobby as a musician also helped. Dever records with one of her two sisters, Mady, singing together as the duo Beulahbelle. “Understanding music is a big tool I use to help with accents because it’s like a song that you just have to memorise.”

Dever has worked with Aussies before, notably Toni Collette in the Netflix drama series Unbelievable, and it was Collette’s performance in the 1999 film The Sixth Sense that compelled Dever to become an actor. “I embarrassingly told her that story when I met her for the first time,” says Dever. “I panicked and had to tell her and was very embarrassed afterwards. She was very sweet and was like, ‘No way!’”

I was an extrovert with people I was familiar with, but I consider myself to be an introvert at times.

Kaitlyn Dever, actor

Dever prefers not to discuss her personal life, so won’t answer questions about being recently pictured holding hands with actor Ethan Dawes. She also has an embargo that prevents her discussing her role as Abby in the forthcoming second season of The Last of Us. However, she dismisses as untrue a report that she required additional security during filming because Laura Bailey, who played Abby in the earlier video game, had been harassed.

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1996 to parents who were ice-skating coaches, Dever’s upbringing in suburban Dallas was idyllic and surrounded by supportive family. Her father Tim was the speaking voice (but not singing voice) of children’s favourite Barney the dinosaur and played guitar at home.

Dever’s close bond with her late mother was movingly apparent when she wrote on Instagram last year after her passing: “My mama. My life. My everything … Nothing I’ll ever say will amount to the gifts you have given me in my life, the boundless joy you brought, the deep, endless, unconditional love you gave me and our family.

“Your love was everywhere. It was in the morning having coffee with you, it was sitting out by the pool eating watermelon (with salt on it of course) and listening to Willie Nelson, it was laying in your bed with you watching Seinfeld and listening to your infectious laugh as you recited every line from memory …”

Asking about her childhood makes Dever nostalgic. “The biggest thing I miss about Texas is the change in weather – you don’t really get a season change in LA,” she says. “I have beautiful memories of when it was so cold the ground and the pavement froze. My parents being figure skaters, we all had skates, so I learnt to skate on my street.”

Her parents encouraged her to become an actor, enrolling Dever in acting school at nine. “I was an extrovert with people I was familiar with, but I consider myself to be an introvert at times,” she says. “I was a quiet observer as a kid, but I was certainly the leader of the at-home plays and movies, which I starred in, directed, produced and edited. I made my little sisters [Mady and Jane] dress up in some pretty ridiculous costumes.”

She was still a teenager when cast in her breakout roles in two series, Justified and Last Man Standing. As an adult, she’s made astute, challenging choices: queer characters Zoe in Dear Evan Hansen and Amy in Booksmart, and OxyContin addict Betsy in Dopesick. She will soon be seen in Jay Duplass’s film See You When I See You, based on Adam Cayton-Holland’s memoir, which deals with suicide and mental health.

Dever says her roles are consciously chosen, aided by intuition and a lot of luck: “A lot of it has to do with my gut instinct of what feels good and what is good.” As a result, to Dever, acting feels less like work and more like something that brings her joy, although she has taken up meditation and pottery as a means of winding down.

“I want to work with good and sweet people,” she says, reminded by her mother’s passing that life is finite. “I want to utilise the time I have wisely and telling important stories is something I’m very passionate about. I gravitate towards stories that deserve to be told.”

Apple Cider Vinegar streams on Netflix from February 6.

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