Will Gluck cut ‘so much nudity’ from One Night Only, says ‘it disrupted’ audience involvement in story
New Delhi: Will Gluck has revealed that he removed a substantial amount of nudity from One Night Only after audiences reacted negatively to explicit scenes during test screenings. In an interview with Variety ahead of the film’s release, the director said viewers increasingly find sex and nudity uncomfortable during a shared theatrical experience.
The romantic comedy follows one unusual rule: premarital sex is legal for just one night every year. Monica Barbaro plays Allie, an aspiring singer, while Callum Turner stars as Owen, a pizza shop owner whose girlfriend decides to explore other relationships on the designated night.
While the premise creates a fictional world with its own rules, Gluck said he did not want the film to become an explanation of that world. He believes audiences should experience the story rather than spend too much time analysing its logic.
Will Gluck explains cutting intimate scenes
According to Gluck, audience reactions during the editing process played a major role in determining how much nudity ultimately remained in the film.
“There was so much nudity in this movie,” the filmmaker told Variety, explaining that the original version showed considerably more of the chaotic world on the streets of New York.
However, test screenings changed his approach. Gluck said audiences would become engaged with the characters before suddenly encountering an explicit scene, which he felt disrupted their involvement in the story.
He eventually removed more of those moments after concluding that “the benefits do not nearly outweigh the negatives”.
Gluck also said the shift was not restricted to younger viewers. While recent discussions have focused on Gen Z and Gen Alpha becoming less interested in seeing sex on screen, the director believes the change is broader.
He told Variety that society has increasingly moved towards treating nudity and adult situations as more private experiences, particularly as people can access such content on their phones.
One Night Only explores a bizarre social rule
Gluck admitted that the film’s premise naturally raises several questions, including why such a law 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.
The filmmaker compared the process of building the film’s world to the way rules can multiply when authorities attempt to control an unusual situation.
One Night Only also features real-life couples in some of its intimate scenes. Gluck confirmed that the production worked with an intimacy coordinator and said the team deliberately cast couples at different stages of their relationships.
Will Gluck backs theatrical rom-com
The director, who previously made Easy A, also credited word-of-mouth for the success of his 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell.
Reflecting on what he learnt from the film’s success, Gluck said audiences could discover One Night Only and realise it was different from what they expected.
“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,’” he told Variety. “You know how the acronym for word-of-mouth is WOM? I’m calling it a WOM-com.”
Sweeney and Powell make unexpected appearances in One Night Only, although their schedules prevented them from filming traditional cameos.
Gluck believes the success of Anyone But You demonstrated that theatrical romantic comedies can still find an audience despite the dominance of superhero films and established franchises.
According to the filmmaker, audiences need the opportunity to discover such movies and recommend them to others. He remains confident that One Night Only can similarly benefit from word-of-mouth after its theatrical release.