Marvel's "Black Panther" made history when it became the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture during the 91st Academy Awards nominations on Tuesday morning. The box office hit, which made $1.3 billion worldwide, received a total of seven Oscar nominations.

The star of the movie, 41-year-old Chadwick Boseman, may have Oscar-winner Denzel Washington to thank for some of his success.

While studying at Howard University in the late '90s, Boseman and some of his peers applied to a prestigious summer theater program at The University of Oxford. The group of students got in, but they couldn't afford to go.

One of their acting teachers at Howard, "The Cosby Show" actress Phylicia Rashad, "pushed for us," Boseman told Rolling Stone. "She essentially got some celebrity friends to pay for us to go."

It wasn't until after the program when he got a beneficiary letter and found out who funded the program: "Denzel paid for me. I'm sure he has no idea. ... I've been waiting to meet him, so I can tell him."