Eh, smack, snack, same diff. You think Merry wouldn't have gotten the shakes if he missed too many Second Breakfasts and Elevenses?
ETA: I completed my DVD homework assignment, taking one for the team so no one else would have to. The commentary track that Somerhalder was on was interwoven with one by Ron Jeremy, people! (Apparently he and Roger Avary are bestest buds...) And to get to it I had to risk mis-clicking and hearing the Carrot Top commentary!
Here are a few Somerhalder quotes:
It's got to be one of the most uncomfortable things on the face of the planet that you can do—kiss a guy.
Put two guys together, it's disgusting.
There's something inherently wrong with that.
Don't stick your fucking tongue in my mouth!
This whole sequence, these two days, were so unbearably uncomfortable.[Refers to his dancing-on-the-bed sequence with Roger Sams. He continues talking about how uncomfortable the restaurant scene was, wherein Roger Sams plays footsie with him under the table.]
Reviewers may have gotten slightly more outraged than required, as only the second comment quoted above seemed to be in general rather than a reaction to specific things he had to do during filming. But he just went on and on and on about how disgusting he found it at length, a reaction that I have to attribute to homophobia since the physical unpleasantness of kissing someone with stubble can't be THAT bad even if you're not used to it (back me up here, ladies?).
At no point did he ever mitigate this by saying anything positive about gay people, or display any empathy with the feelings and motivation of the character he was playing. In fact, most of his commentary aside from the homophobic rants was talking about how disgusting the shooting locations were, knocking Faye Dunaway for holding up shooting (OK, that I'll grant him, but it's not like that should come as a surprise to anyone who's ever read a thing about her...), griping that he didn't have the music he wanted for scenes that he danced in, etc. About the only thing nice he had to say was that he and Shannon Sossamon bonded while shooting the final scene. Then he summed up at the end to say it was a great, enjoyable experience after bitching about it throughout the previous 90 minutes.
I need to find an Ewan McGregor or Christian Bale interview about Velvet Goldmine so I can feel clean again.