Samantha Armytage reveals her most difficult celebrity interview with a Hollywood actress and why a throwaway question to Tom Cruise landed her the biggest 'world scoop'

Samantha Armytage has revealed her most 'difficult' celebrity interview was with Susan Sarandon in 2009. 

The TV star, who has almost 30 years of journalism experience and done countless celebrity interviews, shared the details during an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail.

Sam spoke with Susan, 80, while the actress was promoting her movie The Lovely Bones.

'I mean there were plenty of bad interviews. It's live television. I think probably Susan Sarandon was my worst interview, she was a bit prickly,' she said. 

'She was promoting The Lovely Bones. It was a terribly sad movie. It was a difficult one for her to promote, and I think it was a difficult one for journos to cover. 

'It was pretty sad and awful, and she was prickly, but then when she got back to America after that trip, she announced that her relationship was over.'

Susan confirmed in December 2009 that she had separated from her long-time partner Tim Robbins after 23 years together. 

The couple share sons John 'Jack' Henry Robbins, 37, and and Miles Guthrie Robbins, 34. Susan also has a daughter, Eva Amurri, 41, with ex Franco Amurri.

'I think she had other stuff going on,' Sam said of her interview with Susan. 

'That's the other thing you have to remember with celebrities, is that they have lives as well, and sometimes when they're prickly, there can be other reasons for that. 

'But for the most part, you know, I've had fun doing all those interviews.'

In fact, Sam said her 'best' celebrity interview was with Tom Cruise when the Hollywood star first revealed on Sunrise in 2017 that Top Gun 2 was in the making. 

'I think the best was probably the Tom Cruise interview in the studio at Martin Place for Sunrise,' she recalled. 

'I think he was promoting a Mission Impossible movie, so we did a big Mission Impossible day. 

'There was just a random question down the bottom of our script, asking about Top Gun 2, which was just such a roll of the dice. 

'It wasn't even a thing that anyone knew was coming. At the end, I just thought, "Oh, we've got Tom Cruise sitting here, so I'll just throw this at him." 

'He gave us a world scoop that Top Gun 2 was coming, and that was pretty amazing.'

Sam went on to say she saw in Tom's face the moment he decided to break the news and let Sunrise reveal that a new Top Gun movie would soon start filming.

'When you're sitting with someone like Tom Cruise that close and you can see into their eyes and how he sort of had a moment where he thought, "Should I tell? Am I going give these people a big scoop?"' she recalled. 

'But he's not stupid, he knows what he's doing... So that stands out for me.'

Top Gun: Maverick was later released in 2022. 

'There were so many fun and amazing interviews during those Sunrise years. We really made some big TV back then,' she added.

It comes after the TV veteran recently started a new podcast called Act Two.

The weekly interview series launched on October 13 with actress Rebel Wilson as her first guest and cricketer Michael Clarke as her second.

'It's been liberating to a degree to start something in my own name and for myself,' the Nine star said.

'I have worked for big networks - commercial networks - for 28 years. It's really liberating to do something for myself and run a business.

'It does sort of shift the way that you operate. I've put so much hard work into Act Two because it is mine.'

Sam has already managed to land a huge sponsor, with upscale department store Myer signing on to support her latest venture.

'Myer has come on board as a major sponsor. That's really an exciting partnership. It means the show goes to another level now,' she explained.

'I'm in the process of chatting to other possible sponsors who are also huge iconic brands. So, from a business perspective, it's really exciting.'