Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner on Rom-Coms and the Politics of ‘One Night Only’

Boy meets girl. They banter. They gallivant around New York City. They’re trying to find love … under the thumb of totalitarian oppression?

That’s the setup of the new romantic comedy “One Night Only” (in theaters Aug. 7).

Directed by Will Gluck (“Anyone but You,” “Easy A”), the film is set in a version of the city that looks nearly identical to reality with one twist: Premarital block is illegal, except for the one night each year when unmarried people are allowed to copulate at will. In the movie’s elaborate world-building, the law is the result of a conservative United States government and it is enforced through biosensors, though there is active resistance.

Against this backdrop, the hopeless romantic Allie (Monica Barbaro) and the recently jilted Owen (Callum Turner) keep getting thrown together via a series of chaotic events.

To get a sense of the film he was hoping to make, Gluck asked Barbaro to watch “Uncut Gems,” “After Hours” and “Midnight Run” — films with tight timelines and escalating stakes.

“I was like, OK, there’s not a single rom-com, but I know you’re the rom-com guy,” said the actress, whose turn as Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown” earned her an Oscar nomination. She continued, “It felt odd, but it felt exciting.”

For Turner, a British actor best known for his work in dramatic fare like “The Boys in the Boat” and “Masters of the Air,” the film allowed him to tap into his sillier side.

“I loved how absurd it was,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do an out-and-out rom-com. I did ‘Eternity,’ but it was more of a grounded performance, and this character is a goofball.”

Offscreen, the actors, both 36, have their own romances: Turner married the singer Dua Lipa in June, and Barbaro has been linked to her “Artificial” co-star Andrew Garfield.

In a joint video interview in July, the stars discussed “One Night Only,” their New York memories and their views on love. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

This is a rom-com that’s ***ly political. The whole premise of the movie hinges on that. How did you feel about that throughline?

MONICA BARBARO While it does have that political undertone, ultimately, I think the movie is really just an allegory for dating. You can be living with a government you don’t agree with, but at the end of the day you still just want to find love, and maybe it means having to exist alongside a lot of discomfort and hardship.

CALLUM TURNER You know, the movie is about love. Ultimately, it’s not about anything political. For me, I never paid attention to that. What I really liked, actually, was that it’s not a dystopian future. It’s a New York that we recognize just with a slight twist. It’s also an absurd idea that the government made people not have block.

BARBARO Well, some people feel like it’s absurd, and some people are like, That could happen. That’s the interesting thing.

Do you think it’s absurd or something that could happen?

TURNER I think it’s an absurd idea. That’s the point, right? It’s actually so far from our reality that we can then, as an audience, put ourselves in that situation. You’re like, Well, what would I do if I had this one night? Would I marry early? Would I hold out?

BARBARO I think the biosensors would never fly, but I actually am at a point where I have no idea. I think we’re well past absurdity in a lot of ways right now. I’m constantly shocked by what I read in the news, so who knows?

Your characters take digs at each other’s physical traits. (Allie tells Owen, “Your ears are like car doors.” Owen tells Allie, “Your nose is way too small for your face.”) How did you come up with those?

TURNER Monica improvised those lines. I couldn’t believe it.

BARBARO I was like, “I’ve got more.”

TURNER Monica and Will have an obsession with my ears, which is where that joke came from. When I was younger, everyone used to take the mick out of my ears because I think I was born with the size that I have now, and then my head grew into them.

Will Gluck is known for musical moments in his rom-coms. Here, Allie is a singer who records pop covers for pharmaceutical ads. What were the conversations like around the songs?

BARBARO I got to work with the same vocal coach that I worked with on “A Complete Unknown,” but obviously for that, I was hellbent on honoring the artist I was playing. In this, I was still anxious about the quality of work, but when I was singing the psoriasis song, we just kept bursting out laughing. Este Haim [a composer on the film] was really helpful in getting me to embrace the emotional heights of these songs. Then it just becomes that much funnier.

Callum, were you familiar with the concept of pharmaceutical jingles? [Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is banned in most other countries.]

TURNER No, I didn’t really understand it at the beginning. I’m aware of the commercials but not the jingles.

BARBARO I do wonder if it’ll make sense to people abroad.

TURNER I mean, I still haven’t heard a pharmaceutical jingle in real life. Yours are the only ones I know. [Speak-singing] “Psoriasis, say what you wanna say, and let your clear skin out.” I’m not a singer.

BARBARO That’s what I used to say.

This is a very New York movie. The city is almost another character in the film. Do you remember the first time you visited?

BARBARO I was 12, and it was a clblock trip to New York and D.C. I remember being enamored with it. Then I went a year later with my mom and my brother, and we walked by N.Y.U., and I was like, I want to go there. I did end up going to N.Y.U., and it was a dream come true. I had no interest in being a kid on campus with a football team.

TURNER I was 10. I came with my mum and her friend in that period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It was snowing and cold, and we stayed north of Times Square. I just remember it was like the movies. It was magic. We went ice skating in Central Park. Everything’s bigger and louder and brighter. I was really just in awe of it.

BARBARO That’s how I felt about London, to be honest. I was like, This is nothing like America. This is so cool.

TURNER I also remember being in the hotel room and watching “America’s Most Wanted.” I was like, What the hell is this? In England, we had “Crimewatch.” “Crimewatch” would be like: “A badger was stolen from his den. We have to find the culprit.” “America’s Most Wanted” was like, “Six-time murderer …”

What clblockic rom-coms have you rewatched the most?

TURNER I know Monica’s: “10 Things I Hate About You,” “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”

BARBARO Well done. Yours is “Notting Hill.”

TURNER Yeah. I have, in the past, been on the way out of the house and ended up sitting on the sofa and watching the whole thing instead.

Do you believe in the idea of soul mates?

TURNER I do, definitely. I believe there are so many different types of love. There’s the slow burn. There’s friendships. There’s parents. Soul mates doesn’t have to be a partnership, it could be anything. Some of my soul mates are my best friends.

BARBARO I agree with that. There are also so many ways into love and lasting relationships, but I do think there’s a special karmic something to certain relationships.

In the film, Allie is concerned with finding something “real” amid the chaos. Being in the public eye, how do you make sure you’re able to have a real relationship in spite of all the noise?

TURNER It’s like everyone else. It’s a very normal relationship. It’s the truth.

BARBARO It is ultimately a very normal relationship and protecting privacy as much as possible in order to not open up to — yeah, protecting privacy is a big part of it.