The first day of filming Selma began with an impromptu prayer circle. “Everybody came together to celebrate what we were about to embark on,” recalls actress Carmen Ejogo, who plays Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., in the acclaimed civil-rights drama. “There was this deep-seated desire to get it right, to honor the memory of what had happened.”

The 41-year-old British actress is on the phone with Oprah Winfrey, who helped produce Selma and plays a small part in the film. Although the two women never shared screen time, they clearly share a connection. “There is this very unique love between all the people involved in the film,” says Ejogo. “I think it stems from the importance of black artists getting the chance to tell our own story.” (Certainly, that Winfrey took time away from the business of being Oprah Winfrey to interview Ejogo for her VIOLET GREY cover story speaks to as much.)

Directed by Ava DuVernay, Selma chronicles the three months in 1965 when Dr. King led a series of marches in Alabama to crusade for equal voting rights. Though fraught with violence and resistance from racist factions, the campaign ultimately led President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, the film venerates King without glossing over his flaws, namely his alleged infidelities. As Scott King, Ejogo (whose previous films include Sparkle and The Purge: Anarchy) delivers a quiet yet gripping portrait of a loyal wife who must contend with both her husband’s public persona and extramarital dalliances. “I remember looking at the dailies and yours was the first face I saw on the first day of shooting,” Winfrey tells Ejogo, who has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. “You did such a beautiful job in this film.”

Below, the two women enjoy a conversation that runs the topical gamut from Ejogo’s thoughts on beauty and aging to her current “obsession” with offbeat comedian Reggie Watts.

Read on.