I told him I couldn’t even consider it; I was right in the middle of cutting my film. “Ah, you need a break. It’ll be good for you to get away for a month. Come to Toronto, shoot this movie for me. At least take a look at the script.” The project was a crime drama about a bank robber named Breakfast and his partner, Panda. Panda was a wild, crazy sociopathic criminal. As I read, I thought to myself: Coulson! What a brilliant idea! I called Peter and said, “We should bring Bernie Coulson in to play this guy! I’ve known him my whole life, it’ll be perfect! We’ll have a blast!” Peter didn’t exactly jump on this suggestion; in fact, he sounded strangely reluctant. Looking back, I think it’s because, living in Toronto, he knew more about Bernie’s situation than I did. We had all been young and wild in the ’80s and early ’90s. L.A. life was full of temptations. Plenty of people I knew skated right on the edge in terms of partying. Drugs were all around, all the time.
