South African-British actress Gugu Mbatha-Rawstars in Misbehavior, an upcoming dramedy centered on the Miss World beauty pageant set in the 70s.

In the film, Mbatha-Raw takes on the role of the first Black Miss World during a time of pervasive racism and the birth of the Women's Liberation Movement.

Mbatha-Raw continues to take on roles that bring the history of important but forgotten Black women to the fore.

Earlier this year, it was announced that she was set to play the pioneering Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole in the period drama Seacole. The film, which will be under Billy Peterson's Racing Green Pictures, tells the real-life story of Seacole, a nurse who attended to and cared for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War and goes on to find herself butting heads with Florence Nightingale—considered to be the founder of modern nursing.

Misbehavior, on the other hand,explores the upending of the status quo in beauty pageants and in broader society during a time of racial prejudice and the beginnings of first-wave feminist movements such as the Women's Liberation Movement.

Shadow And Act gives a description of the film as follows:

"In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by U.S. comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women's Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite, but Miss Grenada, Jennifer Hosten (Gugu-Mbatha Raw), the first Black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head."

The timing of this dramedy's release is apt with South Africa's own Miss South Africa Zozibini Tunzi having been recently crowned Miss Universe. Tunzi's win, as a dark-skinned woman wearing her natural hair, has been a necessary stab at the bubble of long-held Eurocentric standards of beauty.

Watch the trailer for Misbehavior below:

MISBEHAVIOUR Trailer [HD] - Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keeley Hawes & Lesley Manvilleyoutu.be