Are You in Love With the Past or Trapped by It? | Juan Pablo Di Pace
October 16, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readJuan Pablo Di Pace was 47.2 years old when he sat down with Chip Conley in Rome, exactly the statistical low point of the U-curve of happiness. "So lucky to be at my lowest point," he said, and meant it. An actor who has played Jesus Christ on NBC (landing the cover of TV Guide), a clown on Fuller House, and Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, Di Pace is now a filmmaker making deeply personal movies. His first feature, Before We Forget (also known as Duino), is a meditation on a single question: What happens when a memory you have adored like a relic for 25 years turns out to be a wound that has kept you stuck?
The Film as Exorcism
Before We Forget is not a conventional coming-out story. Di Pace and his childhood best friend Andrés Pepe Estrada (editor of the Oscar-nominated Argentina, 1985) co-directed a film that jumps between four mediums and two timelines. The present-day story follows a 43-year-old filmmaker trying to finish a movie about his adolescence at United World College in Duino, Italy. He cannot finish it because something is stuck. The film-within-the-film then travels back to 1997, using VHS tapes Di Pace actually found in his parents' basement—footage he had not watched in over two decades.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Memory as Relic and Wound** - Juan Pablo introduces the core tension of the episode: a memory can be both adored and painful.
- 2 (00:40) **Welcome and Context** - Chip Conley introduces guest Juan Pablo Di Pace, an actor, filmmaker, and artist at the low point of the U-curve of happiness.
- 3 (03:00) **The Joy of Movement and Transition** - Juan Pablo explains his love for constant travel and how it allows him to close chapters and start new ones.
- 4 (04:08) **From Actor to Filmmaker** - Chip introduces Juan Pablo's shift from performing to writing and directing deeply personal films.
- 5 (05:45) **The Origin of "Before We Forget"** - Juan Pablo explains how his lifelong friendship with editor Andrés Pepe Estrada led to making their first features.
- 6 (07:15) **The Anti-Hero and Chosen Family** - Juan Pablo reveals his artistic fascination with quiet heroes and unlikely tribes.
- 7 (09:30) **Midlife Ad Break** - An advertisement for MEA's "Cultivating Purpose" workshops.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Your first love can stay with you for decades. So can the story you keep telling yourself about it.
Actor and filmmaker Juan Pablo Di Pace joins Chip Conley for a personal conversation about love, memory, and the past’s hold on our present. Through his film Before We Forget, he revisits a formative teenage love and explores how a memory can be both something we treasure and a wound we carry.
He shares:
- Why romanticizing the past can keep us from moving forward.
- How old videotapes brought powerful teenage emotions back to life.
- What it feels like to watch actors recreate moments from your own life.
- How unexpected friendships can become a chosen family.
- Why trusting your passion matters more than other people’s opinions.
Watch for an intimate look at first love, creative courage, and the memories that follow us into midlife.
Timestamps:
(10:08) Meet Juan Pablo Di Pace
(10:47) A Life of Travel and Creativity
(12:04) From Actor to Filmmaker
(14:23) Admission and Finding Your People
(18:47) The Story Behind Before We Forget
(24:19) Memory and Romanticizing the Past
(27:38) Turning Personal Experience Into Film
(33:13) Bringing Before We Forget to Audiences
(35:31) Playing Jesus and Being Yourself
(40:48) Advice to His Younger Self
(42:28) Follow Your Passion and Study the Greats
(45:26) The MEA Film Fest and New Friendships
Learn more about MEA at https://www.meawisdom.com/
Before We Forget TRAILER: https://beforeweforgetmovie.com/
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