The actress portraying infamous Australian cancer-faker Belle Gibson hopes her performance will honour her mother, who died last year after a years-long battle with breast cancer.

Kaitlyn Dever plays Gibson in Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar, a six-part series investigating Gibson’s childhood, early adulthood and life as a single mother who built a social media following as a self-styled wellness sage and creator of the lifestyle app The Whole Pantry in the 2010s.

Speaking at the global premiere of Apple Cider Vinegar in Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter on Monday night, Dever said that despite initially being “blown away” by the prospect of playing Gibson, she was now “very excited for the world to see it come to life”.

“My dad has seen it, my sisters have seen it, and they all love it,” said Dever, who left her Los Angeles home to film the series in Melbourne two years ago.

“My mum really liked reading this series, she was obsessed with it, so I’m honouring her in this role.”

Apple Cider Vinegar was created by screenwriter Samantha Strauss, who was also behind Nine Perfect Strangers, a 2021 series, based on the Liane Moriarty novel of the same name, that starred Nicole Kidman.

The exploits of the real-life Gibson first came onto Strauss’ radar following her interview on 60 Minutes, but she said it was after reading The Woman Who Fooled the World: The True Story of a Fake Wellness Guru by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, investigative journalists for this masthead, that she considered writing her own screenplay.

“They created this incredible tapestry, not only about the rise and fall of Belle, but it was wellness across history and cancer scammers, and I just thought it was a really powerful story to tell.”