High-concept romantic comedies often hinge on a single irresistible “what if,” but One Night Only takes that question and quietly builds an entire world around it. In New York City, where the film unfolds, intimacy is governed by an unusual rule: pre-marital sex is permitted just once a year. It’s a premise that could easily tip into satire or dystopia, yet director Will Gluck (Easy A, Anyone But You) treats it with a lighter, more observational touch – using it as a lens to explore modern disconnection, dating culture, and the strange pressures we place on love.
At the centre are two strangers, played by Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, whose paths keep crossing over the course of one chaotic, possibility-charged night. While the city around them pulses with urgency and impulse, their story becomes something more intimate: a push-and-pull between timing, chemistry, and the fear of getting it wrong. Beneath the film’s playful conceit lies a familiar question – when the clock is ticking and the rules are stacked against you, what actually matters more: connection, or the idea of it?
As the film’s trailer releases, our Peter Gray spoke with the creative trio about the intricacies of the world building, how they built their chemistry on set, and the importance of seeing a romantic comedy on the big screen.
Looking at One Night Only, this concept implies there’s this whole society built around the rule of “one night a year.” How much of that world did you map out beyond what we see on screen?
Will Gluck: A lot. We did a lot of world building in the movie. It’s an interesting question. The big trick of this movie is that we didn’t want to hit anyone over the head with it. It’s not in your face. Little by little, you watch (the film) and you figure out what’s going on. It takes place in this modern world, but it’s in the background of everything. Once you figure out what the rules are and what the world is, it just becomes a movie about people trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be with.
Are you looking at any cultural or behavioral shifts of the world that exists within this kind of lore?
Will Gluck: We definitely talked about it. Our North Star is more an allegory for what’s going on right now in real life. There’s no connection. It’s all online dating. We ask, “What if all that was in real life in front of you?” It’s less of a moral or cultural or political world, and more about the kind of real-life personification of what’s going on with our world now. We’re so disconnected in real life.
So, the film is challenging or reinforcing traditional ideas about romance and intimacy?
Will Gluck: We talked about that a lot, and we don’t take a side. If you can image if people – for only one night a year (can have sex) – that would be a big topic of discussion throughout the year. But at the end of the day, like anything else, discussion and narratives kind of give way when someone is in front of you and you’re deciding whether you love this person or not.
Obviously, romantic comedies hinge off chemistry. You have Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro here. When did you know they had “it?”
Will Gluck: That’s always the question. Whenever I do romance movies, you do a lot of meeting with them together, and you talk and shape the script. Then in rehearsal, you realise if these people have chemistry or not. It was very clear early on that (Callum and Monica) had incredible chemistry. It’s this push and pull chemistry, which is perfect for this movie.
You have a great track record, with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis (in Friends With Benefits), Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell (in Anyone But You). I’m sure this will continue the trajectory.
Will Gluck: Yeah, I hope so, too.
And I wanted to ask about Easter eggs. Because I know in Easy A there’s oranges all throughout the film. Is there a signature to look out for in One Night Only?
Will Gluck: The fun part about One Night Only is you get caught up whether these two people, who keep missing each other during the night and spend the whole night in New York City trying to find other people, yet they keep running into each other. The fun part for us in making these movies is the background of New York City, you have an incredible amount of world building. Signage, people’s behaviour…whatever they’re doing. You might forget about it after a while, but then you see all these people and they’re shouting out these things in the background that you kind of don’t notice. You kind of forget what’s happening in the world until you start looking for it. There’s lots of Easter eggs in this movie.
And staying with Easy A, it was so heavily influenced by John Hughes movies, and you have Molly Ringwald in this! Looking at the concept, it almost feels like an anti-John Hughes romance, because it’s less about innocence and more negotiation. Was that contrast something you were consciously playing with?
Will Gluck: That’s very well said. On the face of it, it’s less romance and more negotiation, but it very quickly becomes all about romance. And that’s the things that I really want. I love doing movies about relationships and about people. And even though they’re dealing with exterior circumstances, it doesn’t matter what those circumstances are, at the end of the day, they’re just humans trying to make a relationship with each other. It’s a way of saying, “No matter what the world throws at us, at the end of the day it’s still a John Hughes movie.” (Laughs).
Your films have this elasticity between sincerity and irony. Was there a moment in this film where you have to consciously choose one over the other?
Will Gluck: There’s lots of moments. It’s all about human connection – that’s the fun part for me. I just love the idea that you have compressed time. What does compressed time do? It gives people 12 hours. It gives an immediacy and a sense of urgency to see whether people connect with one another. A lot of romantic comedies, there’s no sense of time. It doesn’t matter. Most romantic comedies – even some of the ones I’ve made – the whole plot could be fixed with just a conversation (laughs). But there’s no misunderstandings in this movie. There’s no contrivances.
Because looking at this idea, it could easily skew to a cynical view where love only exists when it’s legally permitted. What was your way of protecting the film from becoming emotionally hollow?
Will Gluck: Well, it’s only prohibiting sexual intimacy. Love is always there. The real question in the movie is, to me, “What’s more important – love or sex?” And I think you can probably guess where we come down.
Well, you’re such a big pioneer of romantic comedies and putting them in theatres, which is where we really needed these movies to continue to thrive. I’m just grateful you made the type of film I grew up watching. Thank you for keeping the genre alive.
Will Gluck: You need a reason to go to the theatre. And this is a big movie. This has a big idea in it. But at the end of the day, you just want to see a movie about two people trying to find each other. You know from my movies that it’s one you want to go with your friends to see. You want to see this and then ask a million questions to each other afterwards, because this movie brings up so many questions.
I’m a romantic comedy fan, and I’m very excited for this one. I wanted to ask the both of you about chemistry. It’s everything in a film like this, but this premise adds pressure. Did the “one night only” aspect change how the both of you built a connection?
Monica Barbaro: That’s such a great point. They fall in love at all odds, and then this night just makes it so much more difficult. Everyone’s acting completely crazy, and my character – Allie – wants a real romantic connection. Owen (Callum’s character) is recovering from some early heartbreak. It’s fun to watch them go on these parallel tracks, but they start to fall in love and try not to converge and separate. I has all the qualities that we love in rom-coms – like the two friends who probably ought to be together fighting against that premise.
Callum Turner: And in terms of the process, I think getting to work with Monica, she brought the heat immediately. And Will (Gluck) set it up for us in a really wonderful way where we’d go out for dinners. We’d all hang out. We had this two week rehearsal period where we were rewriting things and cementing things. Once we got onto the set, with that relationship already there, there was such a trust for all three of us. A safety that we could try lots of things.
There was an immediate trust. We are in a romantic movie, but we’re also in a comedy, and Will presented the safe space for us to just try things and be silly and fall flat on our face. It was so freeing to have that rope to go swing.
Monica Barbaro: We had a great script, but also Will loves to show up on the day and completely change everything. He follows his heart. He’s like, “Oh, give that a go. Let’s do that again.” He’ll change the location of a pivotal scene in a way that absolutely makes the movie that much better and more unique. It’s a lot of creative fun.
I was speaking to Will earlier, and I mentioned how in Easy A he put oranges in every scene. I asked him about the world building for this, and he told me I should keep an eye for things in the background. I’m very excited about the world built here. And you’re both playing people that are trying to build something meaningful under a deadline essentially designed for the opposite. How do you both perform sincerity in a situation that almost discourages that?
Callum Turner: You know what’s interesting about that is that the concept is such a high concept. But, for us, it has to be reality. This is the third year of “the night”, and the world is a completely different world, but it’s also just a stone’s throw away from the reality we live in right now. So there is a recognizable things that we were able to take. This isn’t sci-fi. Ultimately, it’s very grounded and truthful. All of the comedy is born out of that pressure. Everyone in the world is behaving, well everyone in America, anyway, in this film is behaving in a way where they understand that this is the one night that you can be free with your desires and not have any repercussions. Everyone’s on that page, so that’s the reality. It’s true for us.
Monica Barbaro: You make a good point. Will does such a good job (at world building). This feels like the New York that we know, but just with this ever-so-slightly difference. Energetically, it’s very different for all the people, but it’s a recognizable New York. It feels like a love letter to New York and its grit and its rawness in the way (Will) shot it. It just feels like it really harnesses the energy of that city.
Callum Turner: The other things I just realized is that it’s kind of like New Year’s Eve, you know? Everyone’s like, “Who are you gonna kiss at midnight?” It’s that kind of pressure.
Monica Barbaro: We were filming during Halloween, and one night I was going home, and there was just this energy of the night that we were shooting. Everyone running around a bit unhinged.
One Night Only is scheduled for release in Australian theatres on August 6th, 2026.
