‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ Creator Shares Interpretation of Her Belle Gibson Ending
Netflix’s pop-infused comedy-drama Apple Cider Vinegar is on its way to becoming the streamer’s latest viral hit.
A thoughtful and infectious twist on the true-crime genre, the show chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of Belle Gibson, the Australian single mother who launched a wellness empire by convincing the world she had brain cancer and was successfully curing herself with an all-natural lifestyle. “All of which would be incredibly inspiring… if it were all true,” reads Netflix’s official logline.
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Launched by Netflix last Friday, Apple Cider Vinegar was created by award-winning Australian writer and producer Samantha Strauss (Nine Perfect Strangers, The End), who scripted the series with up-and-coming talents Anya Beyersdorf and Angela Betzien. The show was loosely inspired by the non-fiction book The Woman Who Fooled the World, written by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, the two journalists who broke the story of Gibson’s con, leading to her conviction. With a cheeky tone and an irresistible soundtrack of millennial pop hits, Apple Cider Vinegar revels in both the grift and graces of the wellness world, while also chronicling the birth of Instagram and the rise of the influencer. Actress Kaitlyn Dever (Dopesick, Booksmart) gives a masterful star turn as Gibson, reveling in the character’s peculiar pathology and irresistable charisma (while also absolutely nailing the Australian accent).
Since its release, Apple Cider Vinegar has inspired a stream of think pieces and explainers as critics and viewers rediscover Gibson’s bizarre real-life saga while grappling with the broader issues Strauss weaves into her sharp but big-hearted handling of the story. Strauss is currently at work on a follow-up project for Netflix in the U.K., Grown Ups, an eight-part family drama based on a best-selling novel by Irish author Marian Keyes.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to the showrunner about her choice not to meet the real Belle Gibson and how she hopes fans will interpret the series’ ambiguous ending.
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How did you first come to Belle Gibson’s story, and what convinced you to build a series around her?
Well, I knew about the Belle Gibson story in a general way, but it didn’t really open up to me as a series until I read Nick Toscano and Bo Donnelly’s book, The Woman Who Fooled The World. What they did so beautifully, while telling a gripping story of their pursuit of Belle, was create this tapestry about wellness culture and how it intersects with other forces like social media and the medical establishment. They also followed a few people who really did have cancer, who had been followers of Belle, which gave the story a lot of heart.
The book just broadened the Belle Gibson saga so beautifully for me, where I saw how you could tell a story about someone who enacted this wild, diabolical con, but have it be more than just the usual rise and fall arc that we’ve seen so many times before. I knew that I could explore other issues that I care quite passionately about — the intersection of wellness and medicine — while not having to draw tidy black and white lines. It could all live in the grey — which is what it feels like to be a young woman today. As I 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.
Did you consider trying to meet with the real Belle Gibson during your research or writing process?
I didn’t. I thought that distance would only help. 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.
You mentioned you had a personal interest in the contrasts between the wellness industry and conventional medicine. Do you mind sharing where that came from?
Well, like most people, my world has been touched by health disasters — cancer and heart disease. I grew up with a dad who was very unwell but was also a doctor. He was very interested in acupuncture and Eastern medicine, and he talked all the time about how his medical friends would look down upon those sorts of complementary practices. So, we had conversations my whole life about some of these issues. Then I made a show called The End (2020) — which was on Showtime in the U.S. and Sky in the U.K. — which was all about the right to die and the medical ethics around that question. I took a few shots at doctors in that show, so I knew I wanted Apple Cider Vinegar to be more of a love letter to medicine.
I have a very good friend right now whose 3-year-old son has cancer. She talks about taking him into the hospital and having to listen to all of these doctors who seem, on the surface, to be torturing her child. He’s at a stage where he doesn’t actually look like there is anything wrong with him. So, she talks about how tempting it is to go off and try some alternative wellness approach — like, maybe if I just give him some bone broths, he’ll be fine, you know? That desire to be well, or for your loved ones to be well, is so profound. There’s also the expectation that you really need to advocate for yourself in hospitals nowadays. And then there’s the new mantra of, “Do your own research.” People can easily be overwhelmed — they’re naturally frightened and they feel like they don’t know what to trust. So, I can totally understand how people can be led astray or misguided.
The thing I probably loved most about the show is how dexterous it is with tone. It has all the feels in one show — some true crime mystery appeal, humor, warmth, critique, seductiveness and profound sadness. Is that just how you see the world? Were the tonal pivots difficult to execute at times?
It’s definitely a worldview thing. Life is often horrible and wonderful in the same second, right? You may not always get that right when you’re taking big swings like we were, but we did our best to play between tones and to alleviate the darkness with humor. I had some of the greatest times of my life in the writer’s room with my two co-writers, Anya Beyersdorf and Angela Betzien, who are fantastic talents. We all wanted to be a little bit wild — to experiment and not be constrained by the usual TV tropes. What’s so great about these young women characters is that they all have aspects to them that are genuinely fun, so even though the show takes on some very serious issues, it didn’t have to feel like homework or eating your vegetables. Luckily, we also had a director, Jeffrey Walker, and a star, Kaitlyn Dever, with the facility to take us to all of those places. Kaitlyn can switch on a dime between tragedy, horror and comedy. It’s a cliche to say that life contains multitues, but of course it’s true.
Did you do any research beyond reading the book and researching the particulars of Belle’s case? I ask because, as strange and singular as Belle’s case seems, it’s not entirely unique. There have been some similar cases. There was even one in a Hollywood writers room — the strange story of Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch. Did you examine similar conwomen or look into the personality disorders that are often associated with this behavior?
It’s true. It really isn’t as rare as you would think. We did talk to psychologists and doctors, and we looked at other examples, but in the end, it felt really important not to diagnose Belle. It felt to me that it would be a disservice to reduce her to one personality disorder. Many people who suffer from personality disorders do not, in fact, carry out a grand con.
Ultimately, the real research for a show like this was lived experience. We all encounter the cold face of our mortality eventually, in one way or another — whether it’s from caring for someone close to us who has gotten sick or getting sick ourselves. So that’s what we drew upon: our own experiences or conversations with loved ones who have been through it.
Another essential part, for me, was remembering what it was like to be a young woman and knowing how much pressure there is on you — to be pretty enough, to be good enough, and feeling like everything in your life has to be just perfect. All of that feeds into both Milla and Belle’s wants — and it’s further fueled by how they interact with social media. I’ve tried to stay off Instagram, so I didn’t want to go down those rabbit holes as I was researching. But we had some very good Instagram advisors.
Let’s talk about the ending. I found it potentially hopeful. There’s that closing scene where Belle is gazing out at her husband and her son, and you can see that maybe she’s realizing, despite everything she’s been through, that she still hasn’t lost the most important things and still has a chance at a loving life. But on the other hand, just moments prior, during her TV interview, she still wasn’t able to say in the clearest terms possible that she does not have cancer — which could suggest she still has a ways to go in her mental health journey.
Well, yeah, that’s interesting. I see what you’re saying. But I really hope that’s not what that line ultimately means. 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.
Interesting! Part of me found that scene really frustrating. I was like, “Come on, just say it! Say that you don’t have cancer!” But she just can’t…
(Laughs) Well, obviously, the scene contains both. And that’s what the show is all about.
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Apple Cider Vinegar is now streaming on Netflix.
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