‘Didn’t want to forgive her’: New Belle Gibson revelations
The Aussie creator of the new Belle Gibson has told of her thoughts on meeting the cancer fraudster, as she opened up about the “catastrophic consequences” of the conwoman’s scam.
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The Australian creator of the smash-hit series based on the life of fake cancer fraudster Belle Gibson has told why she didn’t want to meet the conwoman, as she opened up about the show’s ambiguous ending.
The Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar has reignited interest in the story of the former Melbourne-based influencer, who launched a lucrative wellness empire by convincing the world she had brain cancer.
Hollywood star Kaitlyn Dever plays Gibson in the series, which also takes in wider issues around the rise of the wellness craze.
Samantha Strauss, writer and producer of the series, has told The Hollywood Reporter she did not want to meet Gibson, who has not yet commented on the series, as she did not want to “fully absolve” the former wellness guru, whose actions had “catastrophic consequences”.
“I thought that distance would only help,” Ms Strauss said.
“I also didn’t want to sit down with her because I knew that if she asked me not to tell her story, I probably still would have done it.
“Because the things she did had such catastrophic consequences and may have harmed so many people so badly. So, I was guided by the view that I would never take cheap shots at her, but I also wouldn’t let the show fully absolve her.”
Ms Strauss told The Hollywood Reporter that for the series, which is adapted from the book The Woman Who Fooled The World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, she was inspired to explore how wellness culture “intersects with other forces like social media and the medical establishment”.
“As got started, I found that you have to exercise enormous empathy to write someone like Belle. It’s my job as a writer to try to understand her as best I can — to grasp at the whys behind her story — but I also knew that I didn’t want to forgive her.”
Gibson, a 33-year-old mother of one, launched her wellness app, The Whole Pantry in 2013, and ultimately signed a lucrative cookbook deal, claiming that she had cured her cancer by eating healthily.
In April 2015, Gibson admitted that she did not and had never had cancer.
In 2017, the mother of one was ordered to repay $410,000 to the Federal Court after being found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct for falsely claiming she had terminal cancer that was cured by alternative therapies and nutrition.
She told the court she did not have the capacity to pay and has since dodged the fine.
Ms Strauss also opened up about Apple Cider Vinegar’s ambiguous ending, which takes in her infamous 60 Minutes interview in2015 interview with Tara Brown, for which she was paid $75,000.
During the interview, which has resurfaced online following the show’s release, Gibson denied having ever lied about having cancer and dodged questions about her age.
The series ends with the character of Gibson gazing at her partner and son as she is about to be interviewed by 60 Minutes.
While being interviewed, the character of Gibson is asked again, “Do you have cancer?”
“I really, really hope not,” she replies.
Ms Strauss gave some insight into the meaning of the ending, telling The Hollywood Reporter the “I hope not” line was key.
“As a writer, you don’t want to totally give away your intentions, but to me, when she says, ‘I really hope not,’ as in, ‘I hope I’m not sick’ what she’s really saying is that she hopes she’s not broken, and that she really doesn’t want to do this to people again,” she said.
Apple Cider Vinegar charts Gibson’s story fairly accurately but the rivalry between Dever’s character and a wellness blogger character named Milla has been fictionalised.
The character of Milla is based on Australian wellness blogger Jess Ainscough, who tragically died from cancer in 2015 at the age of 29.
In the series, Milla, played by Australian actress Alycia Debnam-Carey, is a fierce rival of the fictional Gibson.
The series shows the character of Gibson obsessively following Milla’s every move as the two battle to reign supreme as the queens of wellness.
In reality, while she had met Gibson at an event and occasionally interacted with her online, Ainscough did not have much of an offline relationship with Gibson at all.
According to Donelly and Toscano’s book, the real-life Gibson appeared at Ms Ainscough’s funeral and called attention to herself with theatrical “sobbing”.
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