“It annoys me that people call it a vanity project,” says Louise Linton of Me, You, Madness, the film she wrote, directed, produced and financed. And you can see her point. The movie, which opens in the U.K. in April, has received mixed reviews in the U.S. – some very good, others undoubtedly coloured by people’s perceptions of Linton’s political adventures, of which more below – but it represents the culmination of a career in the film business she has built for herself over the past two decades.
Linton plays a ruthless hedge fund manager in the film, but she is at pains to dismiss any suggestion it has elements of autobiography to it. What she does make no bones about, however, is her pride in Stormchaser Films, the business she has built from scratch to make films such as Me, You, Madness. “It is an all-female company and that is inspiring and empowering at this time when we are seeing a surge in female entrepreneurialism,” she says.
Linton’s own record of ambition and entrepreneurialism speaks for itself. She grew up in Edinburgh, where her aspirations for a career in film began with a chance meeting with students from Pepperdine University, who were taking part in the Edinburgh Festival. Those ambitions eventually saw her move to Los Angeles to take a broadcast journalism course at Pepperdine.
Linton got her Screen Actors Guild card relatively quickly after moving to the U.S. courtesy of a number of small parts on television, but had aspirations to do more than just act. “I enrolled myself in law school, taking night classes while I was auditioning for roles during the day,” she recalls. “I wanted to come out of law school as a weaponised woman – someone who could negotiate the purchase of intellectual property.”
Stormchaser Films was launched in 2012 and the company delivered its first film, Intruder, in which she starred, a year later. “It felt like a remarkable step to complete that first movie,” she says, though Stormchaser has since gone on to produce a series of other successes.
Film-making has changed since those early days, she reflects. “You really needed access to equipment of sufficient digital quality and most people didn’t have that,” she says. “Today, anyone can use an iphone to make a film.” Even so, Linton points out, making it in Hollywood is as difficult as ever, even if attitudes to women in the film business are finally changing for the better. “There has been an incredible shift in the Hollywood over the past couple of years – it has become a much more liberal culture.”
Linton has further projects in the pipeline. One is to develop a TV show based on Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief, the true life story of Bill Mason, who claimed to have stolen $35 million of jewellery from some of Hollywood’s biggest names. Another is “a spy show, loosely based on my experiences in Washington”.
That would certainly raise a few eyebrows. Linton has made headlines as the wife of Steven Mnuchin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury in the Trump administration. A couple of run-ins with the media, courtesy of Linton’s social media posts, brought her celebrity in a very different way to her film career – and there will be many who would love to hear her reflections on life so close to power.
Now out of Washington, Linton is sanguine about the episode and supportive of her peers in politics. “There are some extraordinary female voices in U.S. politics today,” she says, also singling out Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, for praise.
What Linton did notice during her time in politics is how long it takes to effect change. “It’s certainly easier to get things done in Hollywood,” she remarks.
Such obstacles continue to frustrate her. Linton is a noted philanthropist with a particular passion for animal welfare, but advocacy takes a huge amount of energy, she says. “The challenge is that sometimes it feels futile, but then you do get these remarkable breakthroughs,” she says.
Her commitment is not in doubt, having backed the Louise Linton Charitable Fund with her own money and considerable amounts of her time, making a series of awards to organisations active in humanitarianism, animal welfare and conservation. She’s also active in groups such as animal welfare campaign PETA.
Looking forward, Linton believes there is plenty more to achieve, both for her personally and for the causes she supports. She also has ventures in fashion on the go. “I’m really trying to something that appeals to the conscious consumer,” she says of her endeavours. And in the meantime, Stormchaser Films continues to focus on the movie business.
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How Louise Linton Built A Business To Conquer Hollywood - Forbes
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