Will Gluck cut significant amounts of nudity from his new film “One Night Only” after test audiences grew visibly uncomfortable watching it in theaters. The R-rated romantic comedy, starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, imagines a New York City where premarital sex is legal on only one night each year.
Barbaro plays an aspiring singer stuck writing jingles for drug commercials, while Turner portrays a pizza shop owner whose longtime girlfriend wants to see other people once the annual holiday arrives. Gluck, who also produced the film for Universal, has directed in this space since his 2010 breakout “Easy A” and revisited similar territory with 2023’s “Anyone But You.”
Gluck said he began noticing audience discomfort with on-screen nudity during editing on “Anyone But You” and carried those lessons into his new project — though not far enough, by his own admission. “I cut out so much,” he said, noting that the film originally contained far more nudity shot on New York City streets, footage he felt was necessary to capture the world he’d built.
Test screenings changed his mind. Watching audiences react in real time, he noticed viewers physically turning to whoever sat beside them the moment a nude scene appeared onscreen. “The benefits do not nearly outweigh the negatives of it,” he said, adding that he trimmed footage until viewer complaints stopped.
Gluck attributed the reaction less to generational taste and more to a broader change in how people consume nudity, arguing that explicit content has migrated to private phone screens rather than shared theatrical spaces. “Whenever people now see nudity or very adult situations in a big theater, they get uncomfortable,” he said, citing what he described as extensive data gathered from his own screenings.
The finished film carries an R rating for sexual material, language and brief nudity. A review from one critic noted the film ultimately includes little beyond glimpses of men’s bare backsides during a running scene, alongside heavy on-screen product placement for condoms and lubricant brands. The project was first announced in February 2025, with Gluck attached to direct for Universal following his work on “Anyone But You.”
