Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar cast on Belle Gibson and the rise of the wellness industry

By Rachel Rasker, ABC

How do you humanise Australia's most hated fraudster? Hire an American.

Kaitlyn Dever, who you might know from Booksmart or Unbelievable, has taken on the role of Belle Gibson in Netflix's new series, Apple Cider Vinegar.

As its tagline suggests, the show tells a true-ish version of her story, which was based on a lie.

It's a series that's both critical of the wellness fad and explores its value. It pokes fun at influencer and social media culture, but also acknowledges its power to make us feel connected.

And Dever's accent is so good, her co-stars wonder if she's secretly Australian.

Inspiring or toxic?

Apple Cider Vinegar follows the rise and fall of Gibson, who rose to prominence in the early days of Instagram as a wellness guru claiming to have cured her terminal brain cancer through clean eating and alternative therapies.

Only problem was, she never had cancer.

"I think if you're a person who's Australian, you know [her story]," says Aisha Dee, the Queensland actor who's appeared in The Bold Type and Safe Home and stars in the show as Belle's assistant Chanelle.

"I definitely remember that 60 Minutes interview with the pink sweater and glossy lips," adds fellow Australian actor Alycia Debnam-Carey (Fear the Walking Dead), and who thinks of the Tara Brown segment as a "cultural moment seared into our brains".

But Dever's first interaction with Belle's story was reading the script by creator Samantha Strauss. This allowed her to come at the role with fresh eyes and create a "version of Belle" who feels more like a human than the national villain entrenched in our zeitgeist.

"I was appreciative of the fact that Sam didn't want to focus on making a carbon copy of Belle Gibson, because it allowed me as an actor to have that freedom," Dever says.

"It allowed space for more nuance and complexity, which was nice."

And it's this depth that makes the show work.

While Apple Cider Vinegar explores those impacted by Belle's actions - the cancer patients who opted out of life-saving medical treatment under her influence; the sick children she raised money for who never received their funds - it also explores who the fraudster might be underneath it all.

Dever plays Belle as an intensely lonely young woman who's desperate for approval and validation, at any cost.

The series asks if the hope that wellness influencers can provide is also their toxicity - the idea of a magic cure for all our problems. These days, it's bone broth and dopamine fasting. Back then, it was juice cleanses and Apple Cider Vinegar.

"Drink a little bit of this stuff, you're all cleansed, pure again. I mean how hopeful is that?" a character in the final episode wonders.

The voice of the audience

Debnam-Carey plays Milla, a character highly reminiscent of Jessica Ainscough, a self-described "wellness warrior" who attempted to cure her own cancer with natural remedies. Jessica died in 2015 at the age of 30.

While Debnam-Carey insists her character is "definitely an amalgamation of many wellness influences of the time", she did spend time researching Ainscough's story, among others.

She says it felt "essential" to delve into the era - when she was a teenager herself and Instagram was brand new - and reflect on these figures with a 2025, adult lens.

"Back then, there were no guard rails, there was no checks and balances, and it was a little bit more earnest - there wasn't the same glossy finish to everything."

Out of the cast, Debnam-Carey is perhaps the most likely to be branded an "influencer" herself, with an Instagram following of almost 3 million and posts littered with brand partnerships.

"Now, I mean, [Instagram's] a business, and it's people's livelihood, and it has become an incredibly entrenched global platform for everyone," she says.

"[Then] you have new mediums like TikTok [where] different lies or different non-truths … spread like wildfire," especially when it comes to health fads.

While Dever and Debnam-Carey are the first to admit their influencer characters are, in many ways, unlikeable, Dee sees her character, Chanelle, as "the voice of the audience".

As Milla's best friend and Belle's assistant, at first Chanelle helps Milla and Belle market wellness to their followers, growing it from an emerging health trend to a fully fledged business model.

But she starts to see through Belle's lies.

"She was feeling and expressing a lot of the things that I was feeling, reading the script. She felt like … someone who was seeing things for what they actually were," says Dee.

An eventual whistleblower to journalists, Chanelle drives the story forward in an unapologetic, unfiltered way that feels refreshing among the noise of emojis and blog posts.

"She doesn't take any prisoners, and if she sees a problem, she runs towards it," Dee reflects affectionately.

'There's no right answer'

After 14 years living with breast cancer, Dever's mother passed away at the beginning of last year.

For Dever, the show's exploration of the "right" kind of health care is what drew her in, and what she'd like viewers to take away from the experience.

"[The series] discusses the immense confusion between the wellness world and the medical world, and the confusion between conventional and non-conventional therapies," she explains.

Dever's personal stake in the story has become a focus in the media, where she's spoken about her family's experience supplementing mainstream cancer care with holistic health.

"I certainly am right down the middle with my opinion on it and I think there's so much that we bring up in this series, but I hope people are able to have empathy for those who really don't know," she says.

The show explores this theme through characters with cancer who long to have more agency over their treatment and what happens to their body, which feels especially poignant from a cast of young women.

For Dever, "there's no right answer", adding that while Western medicine is incredibly important, she believes some of the holistic treatments her mum undertook helped her live longer.

"There's no right path for everyone, it's not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing, everybody's gonna have their own journey. And I hope that people have more empathy for that."

Apple Cider Vinegar is on Netflix.

Quotes have been edited slightly for clarity and brevity.

This story first appeared on [abc.net.au www.abc.net.au]