'Selma' started where? Oh, just Oprah's Hawaii pad on Christmas

If you haven't heard by now, every critic in the country has fallen hard for Selma. But how did the movie come to be? The Martin Luther King Jr. film sat in development for seven years, losing rounds of funding again and again. Then, Oprah came board. And it all started...during a magical Christmas in Hawaii.

Oprah and Selma star David Oyelowo met shooting The Butler, in which she played Forest Whitaker's long-suffering wife and he played their increasingly radical son. "We actually became really good friends," says Oyelowo, who was invited with his wife, Jessica, and their four children to spend Christmas with Oprah in Hawaii.

"She has this incredible place in Maui and we were all there for the Christmas of that year," he says. "Just having the most extraordinary time, as you can imagine." (Oh yes. We can.) Talk of Oyelowo's hopes to play MLK "just happened very naturally. I was just talking to her about my dreams and what I wanted to do as an actor. And I had this video (on my iPhone) that I’d done awhile back of me doing the 'Mountaintop' speech (from) when I was campaigning to play him. And what I loved about what she said: ''It’s good. I can see it. But it’s not there yet."

That's not exactly the language ever-gushing Hollywood agents/talent managers/casting directors use. "I was so grateful!" he says. "Because to be perfectly honest I’d shown it to other people and I think people feel a need to say, 'Wow! It’s amazing! And I just loved her honesty. I felt, wow, if I am ever to do this, I would love to get her opinion on how I’m doing. Because she just gave it to me real and raw just then."

How did Oyelowo do? Well, Oprah cried at the result. And he's nominated for a Golden Globe. And probably an Oscar. Best. Christmas. Ever.