of The Mercury News named him one of his generation's most versatile actors. Known to be very private about his personal life, Bale has said that his objective was to embody characters without showing any aspect of himself. He explained that "letting people know who you are" does not help create different characters, viewing anonymity as "what's giving you the ability to play those characters". During interviews to promote films in which he puts on an accent, Bale would continue speaking in the given accent. Bale has also been noted for portraying roles with an American accent, with The Atlantics Joe Reid listing him among those who "work least in their native accents"; in real life, Bale speaks in an "emphatic, non-posh" English accent. Bale was ranked at number eight on Forbes magazine's list of the highest-paid actors of 2014, earning $35 million. He has been described as a sex symbol. Personal life Bale has lived in Los Angeles since the 1990s. He holds US citizenship. Bale married Sandra "Sibi" Blažić, a former model, in Las Vegas on 29 January 2000. The couple have a daughter and a son. In 2000, Bale became feminist Gloria Steinem's stepson following her marriage to his father, who died in 2003 of brain lymphoma. Bale became a vegetarian at seven years old but in 2009 said he was "in and out of the vegetarianism now". He had stopped eating red meat after reading the children's book Charlotte's Web. An animal rights activist, he supports the organisations Greenpeace, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Doris Day Animal League, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and Redwings Horse Sanctuary. While promoting The Flowers of War in December 2011, Bale, and a crew from the CNN television network, attempted to visit Chen Guangcheng, a confined blind barefoot lawyer, in a village in eastern China. He was forced to retreat after scuffling with guards at a checkpoint. Bale finally met Chen at a dinner held by the nonprofit Human Rights First the following year, during which he presented Chen with an award. Bale voiced Chen's story in Amnesty International's podcast, In Their Own Words. On 22 July 2008, Bale was arrested in London after his mother and his sister Sharon reported him to the police for an alleged assault at a hotel. He was released on bail. Bale denied the allegations and later called the incident "a