‘We wanted it to feel like a thriller’: How Belle Gibson’s story came to Netflix

Belle Gibson’s story is tailor-made for TV. For starters, it’s based on actual events and features a crime element, which is catnip for networks and streamers. In addition, before Gibson was exposed as a fraud, the photogenic, publicity-savvy young woman found fame and fortune as a pioneering influencer. A shining beacon of wellness, Gibson claimed she had beaten brain cancer, healing herself with a diet she promoted through her globally successful app, The Whole Pantry.

Her headline-grabbing fate invites consideration of a range of hot-button topics: social media and its impact; modern medicine and the wellness industry; the “girl-boss” culture, which attracts entrepreneurial women, some of them unconstrained by ethical or moral issues and itching to build empires. (See also: Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna, Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout and Melissa Caddick in Underbelly: Vanishing Act.)

Kaitlyn Dever as Belle in Apple Cider Vinegar.

In Apple Cider Vinegar, Gibson’s story is inventively expanded, the six-part series fizzing with vitality and attitude. US actor Kaitlyn Dever gives a brittle, magnetic performance as the conwoman.

“We wanted it to feel like a thriller. We wanted the adrenaline to be kicking in as we’re taking down Belle,” says the show’s writer, executive producer Samantha Strauss, who also created The End and Dance Academy.

Strauss’ interest was sparked when she saw Gibson’s interview on 60 Minutes in 2016, after she had been exposed. However, it was only after reading the book The Woman Who Fooled the World, by Age journalists Nick Toscano and Beau Donelly, who broke the story, that she began to think of it as a TV series.

“What I loved about their book was that it wasn’t a simple story about the rise and fall of a conwoman,” says Strauss, whose production company, Picking Scabs, successfully optioned the book. “They went into Belle’s fascinating trajectory, but they widened the aperture to encompass other wellness fads, other cancer scammers, the people who had followed Belle and who were legitimately sick with cancer.

Alycia Debnam-Carey (left) as Milla and Aisha Dee as Chanelle.

“It became clear that this story had the potential to have a real conversation about the intersection between wellness and medicine, and also about what it means to be a young woman and the pressures we put on ourselves to be perfect, and our unquenchable need for online ‘likes’ and approval. It was the conversation that could be had within this fascinating con story that really excited me.”

Each episode of the series, which is energetically directed by Jeffrey Walker and written by Strauss, Anya Beyersdorf and Angela Betzien, starts with a disclaimer saying certain characters and events have been created or fictionalised (as well as noting that Gibson hasn’t been paid).

Included in those fictional characters are three women: Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a Queensland blogger diagnosed with pleomorphic sarcoma; Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), a young Melbourne woman diagnosed with breast cancer who’s influenced by Gibson’s philosophies; and Chanelle (Aisha Dee), a childhood friend of Milla’s and briefly Gibson’s manager, who introduces herself as “pretty much the hero of this story”.

Ashley Zukerman, who plays Belle’s partner, Clive, with Dever.

Soon after the start of each episode, a character declares, “This is a true – or “true-ish” – story based on a lie.” In Lucy’s case, in an elaboration that reflects the sensibility of the series, she adds, “Keeping in mind that the truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

Debnam-Carey, who plays Milla, remembers Gibson’s rise online, and eventual downfall in the 2017 Good Weekend story that exposed her. “I lived through that time period and got to see the rise and fall of some wellness influencers, and how there were no checks and balances,” she says.

“Yet, it was a real way to find community and communicate with people, to find people who were in similar situations and to ask questions that were going against the grain of science or medicine, for people to explore and discover in a different way.”

Mark Coles Smith (left) as Justin and Richard Davies as Sean, the journalists who uncover Belle’s scam.

Filmed largely in Melbourne, the series is packed with local talent clearly relishing meaty roles. Matt Nable and Susie Porter play Milla’s parents, while Essie Davis delivers an astonishing performance as Gibson’s mother. Ashley Zukerman plays Gibson’s partner; Catherine McClements is her book publisher; Mark Coles Smith and Rick Davies are The Age journalists who broke the story; and Robyn Nevin plays the manager of a Mexican clinic.

Debnam-Carey originally worked with Strauss as a teenager on Dance Academy. She’s since built an international career, with roles in The 100 and Fear the Walking Dead, but was attracted by the prospect of another collaboration. “Sam has an extraordinary way with words and tone,” says Debnam-Carey. “These scripts are poignant and sharp and funny, but devastating. Sam’s able to weave in so many nuances with flawed characters that you’re rooting for and frustrated by.”

When it came to the portrayal of Milla, Strauss and Debnam-Carey shared the same intention.

“Alycia said, ‘I don’t want Milla to be a victim: I don’t want her to be the girl with cancer and to do what you expect of someone who’s very sick,’” says Strauss. “And I said, ‘I promise you, she’s not. She’s a fighter with a steel rod of strength. She can be manipulative, she can be arrogant, she can lie.’”

Debnam-Carey agrees. “Often in a cancer or illness story, there’s a tendency for the character to be seen as a victim and Milla is anything but. She’s ferociously ambitious and determined not to let cancer define her. Her story illustrates aspects of someone coming to terms with an illness like that, and the hope and desperation that go hand in hand with trying to reckon with it.”

Regarding the depiction of modern medicine and the alternatives, Strauss, a doctor’s daughter, says, “I think a lot of us have felt let down by medicine. Many of us have felt that we haven’t been heard, especially young women. So you do look for alternatives. You want to save yourself, you want to do your own research and advocate for yourself. We never wanted to show that wellness was all bad and medicine was all good.”

Strauss’ characterisation of Gibson is a dizzying whirlwind: lonely, striving, opportunistic, manipulative, predatory. A seductress and a hustler. A narcissist. A habitual and convincing liar.

“I did a lot of research and then created a character,” says Strauss. “I gave her an insatiable need for approval after a childhood of neglect. The real Belle is different to my Belle, but I didn’t want to take cheap shots at her. I also didn’t want to forgive her. I wanted the audience to understand her, to see how she was created and how she behaves monstrously. And she’s not the only person making mistakes in this series.”

Apple Cider Vinegar streams on Netflix from February 6.

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