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Sometimes, the right words come at exactly the right time.
“Mamma Mia!” star Juan Pablo Di Pace is revealing the advice Norman Lear gave him before the late screenwriter’s death in 2023 at age 101.
Lear is credited as an executive producer on Di Pace’s upcoming film “Before We Forget.” In addition to starring in the movie, Di Pace also co-wrote and co-directed it.
“In the process of editing, I remember there were all these opinions flying around,” Di Pace, 45, exclusively told The Post. “He point-blank said to me, ‘Listen, Juan Pablo, you and Andrés [Pepe Estrada] should do the film you want to make. Don’t listen to anyone. Because at the end of the day, it’s your legacy, and it’s your film.”
Pepe Estrada, editor of the 2022 Oscar-nominated international feature “Argentina, 1985,” wrote and directed the flick alongside Di Pace.
The “Fuller House” actor explained that he and Pepe Estrada were introduced to Lear through Brent Miller, another executive producer on “Before We Forget.”
“It was an incredible thing to be walking alongside Andrés with the blessing of Norman Lear,” Di Pace said.
He added that Lear was a “really wonderful presence” and said the advice the “All in the Family” creator gave him “changed [his] whole perspective of the process.”
“That might be a simple thing to hear, but coming from him — and especially when you are doing a piece that is so personal and that you want it to have your voice — for a debut, first-time director, it was very special to hear it from him,” Di Pace concluded.
Di Pace is known for his role as Fernando, Kimmy Gibbler’s on-again, off-again lover, in “Fuller House.”
He also portrayed Jesus in NBC’s “A.D.: The Bible Continues,” Petros in the first “Mamma Mia!” film, and he finished fifth on Season 27 of “Dancing with the Stars.”
The actor-turned-director makes his feature debut with “Before We Forget,” a nostalgic, years-spanning story of queer first love.
Di Pace plays the older version of Matias, a filmmaker struggling to complete a movie inspired by his first love, Alexander, a Swedish boy he met at boarding school.
Lear was lauded for his contributions to LGBTQ+ storytelling during the inaugural Pride LIVE! Hollywood festival last month.
During a tribute panel featuring several of his former collaborators, “Clean Slate” co-creator Dan Ewen described Lear as “that rare magic that happens when a great humanist is also in charge of some s–t.”
“What Norman never lost was the purest curiosity about mankind I’ve ever come across. ‘What’s next for mankind? What are the conversations mankind needs to have?’” Ewen said. “And when someone like that is in a situation to have those conversations and convey those conversations in aggregate to a wonderful number of people, that’s where magic happens.”
“Before We Forget” is set for theatrical release in New York on July 11, Los Angeles on July 18 and additional markets on July 25.