Jason tries out a broken lifestyle

I play Tom Meyer, a rookie paramedic who falls under the spell of a junkie ambulance driver played by Todd Field. He's trying to deal with his past and do some good to negate the bad karma, but he just can't run away. He's looking for someone to look up to - a lost soul in a scary place with nowhere to go, and he falls into things without being aware of the danger.

It was scary. I had not been involved in those lifestyles - the professional or the junkie. [Producer and co-star] Roxana Zal and I had a couple of friends who had died of overdoses. Our main inspiration was Roxana's ex-boyfriend, who was still living when we made the movie. He died within a month of us wrapping the film, which was really sad, because we had watched him in and out of jail a few times for drug-related crimes.

We thought he was going to stay clean and make it. The last time he went in, everyone decided that cutting him off would make him realise he had no one to fall back on, and understand the severity of his situation.

I did no paramedic research because my character was not supposed to know a great deal. I did more research into heroin. Several people told me coming off heroin is like the worst flu you could ever imagine, then ten times worse. I had to go to some nasty places in my head that I didn't want to go to. I don't have the consistency to be able to do heroin or cocaine. I can't even drink. I can drink about two beers and that's it.