You can all mock me if you want. But, frankly, I don’t care !
It’s a satire on my public image. I like to make fun of myself
We’re living in a cancel culture, nobody knows what’s permissible
She’s been vilified for portraying herself as a ‘white saviour’ in Africa and boasting of the high life travelling on a US government jet. Now Scots actress Louise Linton’s new movie has been pan ned by critics. But she is defiant ...
IN her latest film – she wrote it, directed it and, of course, stars in it – Louise Linton plays a vacuous Los Angeles socialite. Living in a gaudy millionaire’s mansion, her character flaunts a fondness for designer clothes, high-performance supercars and expensive champagne. But in case anyone should think the movie is in any way autobiographical, there is a bloody twist – for the Scot’s character is also a murderous psychopath who, amid 90 minutes of orgies and drug-taking, racks up a body count of around 200 victims.
The film, the 40-year-old is at pains to explain, is supposed to be satire, cleverly poking fun at her public image and at the critics who, throughout her extraordinarily varied life, always seem to find fault with what she is doing.
Yes, she hopes the movie will prove to be a commercial success. But it is also a statement of defiance – mock me if you want, I just don’t care.
To mark the launch of the film, called Me You Madness, Ms Linton has spoken out about her transformation from Edinburgh private schoolgirl to lads’ magazine model to glamorous Washington wife – and now a Hollywood mogul.
She has also opened up about her various high-profile ‘slip-ups’, from portraying herself as a ‘white saviour’ in a book about her time volunteering in Africa, to apparently mocking the lessfortunate while flying around the world on a private jet.
As she prepares to throw herself into the cause of campaigning for animal welfare, the film, she insists, is an attempt to draw a line under the controversies of the past.
She said: ‘The movie is very self aware, and I am self aware.
‘It’s a bit of a parody and a satire on my public image. I’m kind of taking the p*** out of myself a lot in the film. I like to make fun of myself.’
In real life Ms Linton has certainly proved herself to be the queen of reinvention – and has repeatedly found herself at the centre of a storm.
Raised by her property developer father William and mother Rachel, who died from breast cancer when Ms Linton was 14, she attended the prestigious Fettes College in Edinburgh and from a very young age had ambitions to become a star. She said: ‘I did theatre as a wee girl and dreamed of being an actress.
‘I didn’t anticipate that I’d end up being a producer and director and I really enjoy that.’
Before she moved to Hollywood to pursue her dreams, she travelled to Zambia for a gap year – a move which would ultimately result in a PR nightmare when she wrote about her experiences 17 years later.
After Africa, she moved to Hollywood to study at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and launch her acting career.
She landed television roles in CSI: New York and Cold Case, and was featured in a sexy photoshoot for lads’ magazine Maxim.
She also appeared in smaller movies such as horror remake
Cabin Fever and Charlie Sheen drama The Power of Few.
In 2013 she met hedge fund boss and movie financier Steven Mnuchin, who has backed films such as Wonder Woman and Avatar – and the couple were engaged two years later.
In 2016, with Mr Mnuchin working on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, she experienced her first public backlash, after publishing a memoir of her African gap year which included tales of fearing a rebel attack as an aid worker with ‘angel hair’ in Zambia.
Amid accusations parts of the story had been over-egged for dramatic effect, the book, titled In Congo’s Shadow, was described by one critic as ‘the defining work of the “white saviour in Africa” genre’, and was withdrawn from sale. She apologised for any offence.
Following Mr Trump’s election, Mr Mnuchin was appointed his
Treasury Secretary and Ms Linton became, overnight, one of the most powerful women in Hollywood as the interim chief executive of her husband’s giant film finance firm, Dune Entertainment, while he attempted to divest his business interests before taking office.
Mr Mnuchin’s White House role thrust her into the limelight and she ran into trouble after a government trip to Fort Knox weeks after their lavish DC wedding, officiated by then Vice President Mike Pence and attended by the Trump family.
She came under fire for a lack of sensitivity and decorum when she posted Instagram pics of her arrival on an Air Force plane, deliberately highlighting the designer brandnames she was wearing.
But the real crisis began when she hit back at members of the public, telling one critic: ‘I’m pretty sure we paid more taxes toward our day “trip” than you did… You’re adorably out of touch.’
She later apologised for her outburst – but was caught up in more controversy months later when she and Mr Mnuchin launched a new print run of dollar bills featuring his signature, and she posed with long black gloves that saw her compared to a Bond villain. Looking back, Ms Linton said: ‘I had my slip ups. No one prepares you to suddenly be in that kind of world.
‘I don’t think anyone can prepare you for anything like that.
‘We’re all very faceted, and I feel that I’m not really defined by that.
‘If anybody has any interest in exploring other aspects of who I am, I’m a passionate animal advocate, I’m a very caring person, and I’m actually just like any other girl.
‘No one should be defined by a passing moment in their life that was four years ago and it’s sometimes frustrating to have that be the constant reference. I understand the media – controversy sells.’
The backlash included nicknames such as Marie Antoinette and Cruella de Vil, while a pile of horse
manure was sent to their California home – even though it ended up at a neighbour’s door by accident.
Ms Linton said: ‘What a silly thing to do. Whatever silly sod did that really only cost the local police department time and resources.
‘We’re human beings and we have feelings. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have feelings.
‘When people are kind, it feels good and when people are mean, it doesn’t feel good.’
Living close to the Trump inner circle, she has also had insight into the former first family.
She said: ‘Whether you’re an actor or a politician, you’re still a person at the end of the day.
‘What I take away from my experience in Washington is that they’re all just people and have the same thoughts and feelings and concerns – they laugh, they cry.’
While she was proud of the job her husband did, she admitted she was ‘relieved’ when they finally exited Washington DC earlier this year after the change of administration.
She said: ‘It was fascinating and I had some really cool, fun experiences, but I’m glad to be back in California. I did my best there to work for animal welfare, I’m glad I had the opportunity to do that. I wish I’d done more of it.’
Ms Linton marked her return to Hollywood with the US launch earlier this year of Me You Madness.
Her zany comedy thriller is about Catherine, a narcissistic, champagne and cocaine-addicted hedge fund boss with a taste for serial murder – who falls for a hapless burglar, played by English actor Ed Westwick, best known for Gossip Girl.
Produced by her own company Stormchaser Films, the movie’s release was delayed until the couple had left Washington. She said: ‘We deliberately waited for that. But who knows? Controversy sells so maybe it would have been a good thing.
‘My husband loves the film and thinks it’s funny, so I wonder what it would have been like to release it sooner. It could have been entertaining.’
The film was panned by critics in the US but she insists: ‘It’s this great silly, silly movie and I hope people get that it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
‘People ask me if it’s autobiographical, and I’m like, “Yeah, I’ve got 200 bodies in my fridge”. Catherine is so brave and confident,
I suppose I wish I could be that confident. She’s a bold and brave and fun character.’
Catherine has a line near the start of the film when she tells the ‘PC Police’ to ‘shut it!’.
Ms Linton said: ‘I like to make fun of myself. But we’re living in a time of cancel culture where nobody knows what’s permissible and what’s not, and I wanted to write a character that was bold and playful and didn’t really care.’
The raunchy scenes might prove too much for some of the couple’s former Washington colleagues, while several in-jokes might not go down so well in the Trump household. One moment sure to get the attention of the former president is the inclusion of the theme tune from his hit reality show The Apprentice, for a big reveal of the character’s expensive cars.
But Ms Linton insists she did not make the connection when picking the track, adding: ‘I never watched The Apprentice, it was about choosing songs that are so on-thenose that it makes people laugh. It’s not a tribute to Steven’s old boss. I don’t know if he has seen the film, I’ve no idea. Who knows?’
One of her favourite lines from the film involves the killer listing the victims she believes deserved to be murdered – such as gangsters or neo-Nazis – before adding to the roll call: ‘Republicans.’
She then walks it back by targeting Democrats and Independents, but delights in the shock factor.
Ms Linton said: ‘I’m cheeky like that, I thought it would be really funny. I love poking fun at the elephant in the room.
‘I hope that people have a laugh watching the film and that they get it – I’m in on the joke.
‘Steven loved the film, he laughed and really enjoyed it.’
Once restrictions allow, she plans to return to Scotland to visit her father, who survived a serious case of Covid earlier this year.
Now, free of her Washington shackles, Ms Linton is keen to focus on her animal rights advocacy work.
She is busy campaigning on causes such as stopping sportswear companies making shoes out of kangaroo leather, preventing animal testing on dogs, and rescuing horses from export and slaughter.
The movies still beckon, with a revenge thriller in the works.
Ms Linton jokes there is surely a script in her four years at the heart of politics, from the Oval Office to Buckingham Palace, where she felt ‘like Alice in Wonderland’.
She said: ‘I’ve pitched a show about a spy but inspired by my experiences. I certainly did have lots of exciting and fun experiences I think I could draw from.’
She added: ‘I frequently said to my husband, “I could have been a spy that whole time”.’
Who knows what is next for the Hollywood Scot who has never stopped changing? l Me You Madness will be available via digital home video on demand from April 19 on iTunes, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Sky Store, Sony, and TalkTalk.