Director Will Gluck has revealed that he removed a large amount of nudity from his new romantic comedy One Night Only after test screenings showed audiences were visibly uncomfortable with explicit content on screen. The filmmaker, known for Easy A and Anyone But You, told Variety that he shot extensive nude scenes on the streets of New York but kept cutting them until audience complaints stopped.
Why Gluck Decided to Remove Explicit Scenes
Gluck said the decision came after he noticed a clear pattern during test screenings. Audiences would become engaged with the characters and the story, but when a nude scene appeared, the reaction was immediate and physical.
“You’re engaged in the characters and what’s going on, and then you pan over and there’s two naked people having sex, and you watch the audience … it’s a physical thing. They turn to who they’re with and … the benefits do not nearly outweigh the negatives of it.”
The director said he and his team kept editing out explicit content until the negative reactions went away. The final version of One Night Only contains significantly less nudity than what was originally shot.
A Societal Shift Away From On-Screen Nudity
Gluck believes the change in audience comfort levels is not limited to younger viewers. While recent studies have shown that Gen Z and Gen Alpha want to see less sex on screen, the director thinks the shift is broader.
“I don’t think it’s just Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I believe it’s been a societal shift from taking nudity in adult situations and putting them on your phones at home for everybody. Now it’s more of a private, intimate thing that people don’t want to see when they’re in a shared experience.”
He added that whenever people now see nudity or adult situations in a big theater, they get uncomfortable. Gluck said he learned this lesson while editing his previous film Anyone But You and tried to apply it to One Night Only.
“Once I’ve learned that, which was all through the editing process for my last movie, I applied it to this movie. But even so, I didn’t apply it enough.”
What ‘One Night Only’ Is About
One Night Only is set in an alternate reality where the U.S. government has outlawed premarital sex for 364 days a year, leaving unmarried people just one 12-hour period annually to hook up. The premise has drawn comparisons to The Purge horror franchise, where violent crimes are legal for one day each year.
The film stars Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown, Top Gun: Maverick) as Allie, an aspiring singer who makes a living through humiliating drug commercial jingles. Callum Turner (Masters of the Air, The Boys in the Boat) plays Owen, a pizza shop owner whose long-term girlfriend decides to sleep with other people on the designated night.
The two strangers keep running into each other over 12 chaotic hours in New York City. The film also features Maya Hawke and Julia Fox in supporting roles.
How the Film Was Made
Gluck said he shot a significant amount of nudity on the streets of New York because he believed the chaotic world required visual proof. The production worked with an intimacy coordinator and cast real-life couples for the explicit background roles.
“It was never like we met an extra and were like, ‘you guys are kissing.’ It was fun because there were married couples, people who broke up during the movie and people who became couples so they could do that.”
Some of the couples were married, some split up during production, and others formed relationships specifically to land the roles. None of that preparation changed what test audiences rejected.
The Film’s Unusual Premise
Gluck admitted that the film’s premise raises many questions, including why the ban exists and how it could be enforced. Rather than spending much of the runtime answering them, he wanted the fictional rules to remain in the background.
“You can’t really describe this movie. [The cast] goes on talk shows and spends 80 per cent of the time explaining the rules of the world, and that’s not what the movie is about. We have to just let people see it.”
When asked why people wouldn’t simply get married and divorce to bypass the rule, Gluck explained that the film addresses this with municipal signage stating that you cannot get divorced unless you were married for one year plus one day.
Mixed Reviews and Audience Reactions
Reviews for One Night Only have been divided. Some critics have described the film’s message as “strangely conservative” and even “fascist”. The Guardian critic Benjamin Lee wrote that the premise could have been the setup for a dark dystopian horror but instead serves as a backdrop for a sunny romantic comedy.
On social media, Gluck’s decision to cut nudity has sparked strong reactions. Some users joked about the irony of removing sex scenes from a sex comedy. One viral tweet read: “This sort of prudishness is a slippery slope towards a world where there’s only one night a year when it’s legal for single people to have sex.” Another user expressed frustration, writing: “This guy cut nudity out of the Monica Barbaro movie? are you out of your f—— mind?”
Gluck’s Confidence in Theatrical Rom-Coms
Despite the mixed reviews, Gluck remains confident that One Night Only can find an audience. He credited word-of-mouth for the success of his 2023 film Anyone But You, which starred Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell.
“I learned from my last movie that people are going to discover this and say, ‘Wow, that’s not what I thought it was going to be.’ You know how the acronym for word-of-mouth is WOM? I’m calling it a WOM-com.”
Gluck believes theatrical romantic comedies can still succeed despite the dominance of superhero films and franchises. He said audiences need the opportunity to discover such movies and recommend them to others.
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Where to Watch
One Night Only was released in theaters on August 7, 2026. The film is distributed by Universal Pictures. Streaming availability has not yet been announced.
Also Read: One Night Only Review: Critics Divided Over Will Gluck’s Sex Purge Rom-Com
One Night Only Cast and Characters: Meet the Stars of 2026’s Most Talked-About Romantic Comedy
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