What happens when your health and wellness advice comes from a fraudster?
Inspired by a true story that was based on a lie, Apple Cider Vinegar stars Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson, an Australian wellness influencer who claims to have cured her terminal brain cancer through health and wellness. Sounds unlikely? That’s because it is. As it turns out, Belle has never actually been diagnosed with — or cured of — the malignant brain tumor that she shares with the world through social media, the mobile app she develops, and its companion cookbook. The series is now streaming.
Dever was excited to lead Apple Cider Vinegar, as someone who “holds the wellness world so close” to her heart, the actor tells Tudum. “The show really does an amazing job at shedding light on the confusion that surrounds the medical world and the wellness industry — and also human behavior and why we lie,” Dever says. “It does have very high stakes and feels very life and death.”
Created by award-winning Australian writer Samantha Strauss (Nine Perfect Strangers, The End, Dance Academy), who was living in Melbourne during the real-life Gibson’s success in the early 2010s, the six-episode limited series serves as a cultural interrogation of the times, exploring the birth of Instagram, the allure and rise of wellness culture, peak “girlboss” start-up culture, and the age of innocence on social media when very few checks and balances were in place.
Read on to learn everything we know so far about Apple Cider Vinegar.
Set during the early days of Instagram, Apple Cider Vinegar follows two young women who set out to cure their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness, influencing their global online communities along the way. All of which would be incredibly inspiring if it were all true. As we’ve since learned, it’s often impossible to tell what’s real and what isn’t on social media, even when it comes to the most serious subjects. “It’s really interesting to look at how media uses food as a weapon against us and how much we crave the nourishment, but how much of a privilege and how expensive it is to try to be well,” said Strauss.
Yes! Check out Dever as Belle Gibson in the trailer at the top of this page.
The series has its inspirations in real events, but it is a work of fiction. Apple Cider Vinegar is a true-ish story based on a lie, about the rise and fall of a wellness empire, the culture that built it up, and the people who tore it down. Certain characters and events have been created or fictionalized.
The series is inspired by the 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano. Strauss was first introduced to Gibson’s story through Donelly and Toscano’s reporting in The Age, a Melbourne newspaper.
“They wrote about the people who had been misled by Belle and how that had impacted them,” said Strauss. “They created this beautiful tapestry that looked at how Western medicine lets us down emotionally and why people are drawn toward wellness. If the book had only been about a cancer scam, I don’t think I would have been that interested in adapting it for television. But I think we all desperately want to be well, and many of us live with chronic physical or mental conditions and are so vulnerable to being preyed on. Turning this book into a series felt like a way to have a powerful conversation about wellness and medicine — why we lie, and how we hope.”
Donelly and Toscano stopped by Netflix podcast You Can’t Make This Up to share an inside look into how their reporting became the inspiration for Apple Cider Vinegar. The duo began speaking to Strauss a few years after their book debuted, and were immediately “impressed” by the writer’s take on the story.
“While elements of [the TV series] are obviously fictionalized, it does a really good job, in our opinion, of conveying those sorts of issues that really propelled us to write the book in the first place,” Toscano says on the podcast. “It’s not just the rise and fall of a cancer con woman. It also really does a good job of exploring those deeper modern and powerful mega-trends that Belle Gibson was at the center of.”
You can listen to the full podcast episode here.
Like many works based on true events, the series is not a biopic and some characters are fictionalized. The cast of Apple Cider Vinegar is:
Dever plays Belle Gibson, an Australian wellness influencer who builds an empire based on the lie that she’s cured her terminal brain cancer through health and wellness.
“Kaitlyn was so brave,” said Strauss. “The character is so monstrous at times, so vulnerable, unlikable, and snotty. And Kaitlyn went there, again and again and again.”
Dever said that while she’s pretty informed when it comes to wellness, she wasn’t aware of Belle’s story before she came to the role. “And that's one of the big reasons I wanted this role,” she said. “And that's why I was really excited to take this on. Because I think it’s a deeply layered and complex case study that needs to be shared.”
Dopesick, Unbelievable
Milla is a young woman who builds a platform promoting the power of food to fight cancer. “Despite the fact that she is dealing with cancer and trying to heal herself naturally, Milla is never the victim,” said Debnam-Carey of her character. “She’s very ambitious and wants to make a name for herself. In her mind, it’s for all the right reasons. But it’s also incredibly misguided and tragic in many ways, so it’s complicated.”
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Fear the Walking Dead, It’s What’s Inside
Dee plays Milla’s close friend, Chanelle, who meets Belle at an event and begins working with her on her growing business.
“The first time I read the script, I just felt like I knew her,” said Dee. “I think the truth is really important to Chanelle. She sees things as being a little bit more black and white, so she has really strong convictions about everything and she strives to uncover the truth.”
The Bold Type, Safe Home, Look Both Ways
Cobham-Hervey plays Lucy, a young woman whose heartbreaking cancer diagnosis changes the course of her and her husband’s lives drastically. To help her cope, Lucy looks to Belle's online community.
“Through Lucy’s story, we get the perspective of someone going through cancer and learn how following Belle impacted her treatment,” said Cobham-Hervey.
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, I Am Woman
Coles Smith plays Lucy's husband. He’s a journalist who seeks justice for those Belle has deceived, while navigating his wife's illness.
“It’s been so delightful to collaborate with Mark
and build this world with him,” said Cobham-Hervey of her co-star. “I'm very grateful that he is my on-set husband. We shared so many intense moments as Lucy and Justin, tracking their relationship over the course of her cancer journey and what they both learned through that.”
Mystery Road: Origin
Clive enters Belle’s life and believes she has cancer. Won over by Belle’s charm and ambition, he becomes tangled in her lies.
Succession
Tamara is Milla’s mom. She desperately wants to support and help her daughter however she can when she’s diagnosed with cancer.
Irreverent, Wentworth
Milla’s dad Joe is skeptical of non-conventional cancer treatments.
Transfusion, Last King of the Cross
Belle enlists Hek’s help as a crisis manager when public opinion starts to turn against her.
The Night Agent
Arlo and Milla know each other from school. They reconnect at a wellness retreat after Milla’s cancer diagnosis.
Night Sky, The New Legends of Monkey
Davies plays Sean, an investigative journalist who looks into Belle’s story.
Offspring
Davis plays Belle’s estranged mom, Natalie. The duo has a troubled relationship.
The Babadook, Game of Thrones
Julie is an editor interested in publishing Belle’s cookbook.
Total Control
Andrew is Belle’s stepdad. Belle isn’t his biggest fan.
Mr Inbetween
No — the Phoenix, Arizona-born actor just does a really great job of sounding like she is. “Her accent work was extraordinary,” said Strauss. “It was a masterclass watching her and Jenny Kent, our accent coach.”
Dever worked with the Melbourne-based dialect expert to nail the intonation and inflection. “Jenny and I were seeing each other three times a week over Zoom and going over every single word that I say, kind of like I would a song, memorizing those sounds,” said Dever. “I love accent work in general, but there’s something about this accent in particular and how it allowed me to dive deep into someone else. It was really helpful for me to separate myself from the character.”
Dever added that she “didn’t want to let Australia down.”
Dip into the world of wellness as Belle kicks off her quest to heal herself naturally in the teaser above.
Yes, check out the Spotify playlist above for a carefully curated selection of pop songs from the 2010s and beyond, including classics like Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and, of course, Katy Perry’s “Roar.”
Apple Cider Vinegar is set in the 2010s, when smartphones became a permanent fixture and social media began to permeate our lives, unlocking new possibilities for start-ups and influencers. Wellness was among the successful influencer niches, as “self-care” became a priority for many people.
“We jump [between] timelines, and our storylines shift across wellness, social media, and medicine,” said executive producer Liz Watts. “But at its core, it’s about why we want our world to be full of hope and dreams — and community. Wellness can fulfill a lot of that for us.”
“The show is fun, it’s wild, it’s out there. And that’s how we wanted to start — with a bang,” Strauss said of the opening sequence in which the four key female characters dance together in sparkly gold dresses.
After Spears gave the show’s music supervisor the go-ahead to use the song (“I need to frame that email,” said Strauss), Dever, Debnam-Carey, Dee, and Cobham-Hervey learned choreography for the opening number.
“‘Toxic’ is such an important word in the context of the themes we’re exploring,” added director and co-executive producer Jeffrey Walker, “whether it’s toxic positivity or toxic relationships or toxic medicine going into your body. So to have that fantastic and well-known track at the start and laying it over images of this idealized world that Belle has invented … was a wonderful treat.”
Why indeed. During her book launch in Episode 5, Belle bursts into a not-so-tuneful rendition of Katy Perry’s “Roar.” Strauss had planned for Dever to recite a poem in that scene, but when the rights didn’t come through, “Roar” reared its head. When Strauss asked Dever about performing the pop song, “Kaitlyn just looked at me, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, in an Australian accent in front of a roomful of people, a cappella,’ ” Strauss said. “And she was like, ‘OK, I'll do it.’ She was incredible and absolutely fearless.”
Dever enjoyed the unrehearsed moment. “I didn’t want to sing the song until we were actually shooting,” she said. “And then I just really gave it my all, and it was really fun.”
For Walker, it’s Belle’s ambition that “drives her to make choices that you can’t look away from. It’s like a train crash,” he said. “When we were shooting this scene, the reactions from the background artists in that audience showed how perplexed they were by this character. It’s a microcosm of how the audience of the series will feel toward her — you’re sort of half amused by her and half terrified at the same time.”
Check out Dever, Debnam-Carey, Dee, and Cobham-Hervey in the pics above.
The limited series was shot on location in Melbourne. “We had so many locations that took us from far-flung parts of Melbourne one day to the Dandenong Ranges the next,” said Strauss. “We wanted to show Melbourne as an aspirational place to be.”
American actor Dever — who flew to the other side of the globe for Apple Cider Vinegar — admits filming this complex story could have felt “very stressful or overwhelming.” But once on set, she felt the opposite, and credits her co-stars for her overwhelmingly positive experience. “I love this cast so much,” she tells Tudum.
One of the first scenes Dever filmed was the Episode 5 moment when Chanelle confronts Belle about her alleged cancer diagnosis. “That day could have been very difficult, but it wasn’t because I had two brilliant actors to work alongside,” she says. “That scene took two days to film just because it was so long and complicated but, man, it was great.”
Strauss created Apple Cider Vinegar and wrote the series with Anya Beyersdorf (The Twelve, Fake) and Angela Betzien (Total Control). All episodes are directed by Jeffrey Walker (The Clearing, The Artful Dodger, Modern Family), while See-Saw Films’ Liz Watts, Helen Gregory, Emile Sherman and Iain Canning; Picking Scabs’ Strauss and Louise Gough; and Dever serve as executive producers. Jeffrey Walker and See-Saw Films’ Simon Gillis are co-executive producers. Yvonne Collins is also a producer on the show, and See-Saw Films’ Libby Sharpe is a co-producer.
Dever describes Strauss as an “inspiring” creative leader, and credits her with balancing the darker themes of Apple Cider Vinegar with its brighter moments. “When I first read the script I was like, ‘Gosh, this is some really heavy stuff we’re talking about here, you guys.’ But boy does Samantha know how to lighten the mood and keep a fire underneath everything,” Dever says.
“[With the title] I wanted something that would capture this idea of hope in a bottle and that could be a bigger umbrella than something that would relate only to Belle,” explained Strauss. While apple cider vinegar does have many genuine and effective uses, and ingesting it may have some health benefits, that doesn’t mean it can perform medical miracles, like curing cancer.
You can stream all 6 episode of Apple Cider Vinegar now on Netflix.
