Louise Linton Reflects on 'Movie Villain' Money Photo: 'I Really Hope I Can Wear That Outfit Again'

It’s been three months since Louise Linton was branded a “movie villain” when a leather-gloved photo of her and her husband, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, holding up sheets of newly printed money was skewered on social media.

Now the Scottish actress is back with some deep thoughts on the moment.

“I just didn’t bother taking the gloves off because it was kind of cold in the bureau,” Linton tells Elle of the elbow-length, black leather gloves she wore while holding the bills. “And I didn’t expect that I would be pulled into a picture!”

Linton, 37, became the subject of many a meme after she and her husband were photographed during a November visit to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to see his name printed on dollar bills for the first time.

Linton came under fire for the moment three months after sparking another social media storm by tagging a photo of herself exiting a government plane with the names of all the designer brands she was wearing. Linton was accompanying her husband, who had been under scrutiny for his government-funded travel expenses.

After commenters criticized Linton for being “tone-deaf,” she lashed out at one by calling her “adorably out of touch” and boasted about how much she and her husband pay in taxes.

In her new interview with Elle — which the magazine titled “Louise Linton Is Super-Duper Sorry” — the actress still seems to be at a loss over the overwhelming backlash she received for the two incidents.

In her own defense she says, “I was tagging things [on Instagram] because I thought I had seen other actresses doing that, and I was like, I should do that, too. I should be more fashionable. I need to play that role; I need to be more elegant; I need to be more stylish. I look at amazing fashion icons like Jackie O and I’m like, ‘Why can’t I wear gloves?’ ”

Linton says she’s since hired a Washington protocol expert to learn about political etiquette and avoid more embarrassing missteps like her last couple — for which she says she’s “super-duper sorry.”

And what better way to say sorry than by spelling it out with fashion?

“I’m just a regular girl, and I’m not perfect, but I’m trying my best,” Linton tells Elle. “Maybe I should wear that on a T-shirt and Instagram that. And then on the back it should say…‘I’m so sorry.’ ”

As for the leather-clad fashion moment that got her into this mess, Linton says she still really likes the ensemble.

“I really hope someday I can wear that outfit again,” she says.

Unfortunately for Linton, her new Elle interview has already earned her more mocking on social media, where critics agreed she still seems just as “tone-deaf” as ever.

“You could not create a more tone-deaf person than Louise Linton if you pull all the scientists at the National Labs on the job,” said Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery.

And The Washington Post‘s Christopher Ingraham tweeted, “Louise Linton is just a regular person who grew up in a castle and did what any regular person would do after moving to D.C., which is hiring a coach to help you act like a regular person.”