Michael Same has had a multifaceted career as a director, actor and even a pop singer and managed along the way to direct one of the most notorious films of all time: Myra Breckinridge (1970). Needless to say, he's had a fascinating career and I jumped at the chance to interview him. Born in 1940 in London, Sarne spent most of the early 1960s singing and had a British pop hit with the novelty tune “Come Outside,” with assistance from Wendy Richard; during this period, Sarne also worked intermittently as a TV quiz show host. Sarne pretty much knew everyone who was part of the scene that became known as “Swinging London” and soon he was moving in the inner circles of the entertainment business. Sarne has also directed a number of television commercials, done film criticism for various cinema journals — such as Sight and Sound — and continues to moonlight as a pop singer in his spare time, in addition to numerous acting gigs. Through a series of chance encounters, blind luck, coupled with shrewd calculation, Sarne was soon directing the lavish Technicolor musical Joanna (1968) and then parlayed that into a contract with Twentieth Century Fox in Hollywood. Since then, he's been involved in a variety of other projects, but let him tell it in this interview from 30 April 2011, arranged by Jill Reading of the BFI.