I think all public people have a "persona" that they are not in total control of. And I thought this was what @golden was talking about (although please correct me).

I read an author saying that famous people who separate their public image from "themselves" actually seem to fare better, since it lessens the anxiety and the sense of being scrutinized. Maybe by treating your public self as a "persona," or just a series of pragmatic decisions. At any rate, what others spin around you doesn't entirely feel like "you," even if you in some sense contribute, or try to "direct" it. And I'd imagine it might not feel like you even if you were being really sincere.

In Bourdain’s case, we have a media persona, and I incline to see that as a complex construction. There was a time when his seemingly only shtick was to show up on some cooking show and be irascible and say something cutting. That’s what he was getting money for. But over time he expanded his persona. Unless you take that persona as a one-for-one index to his private self, it is one way of seeing how the persona is somewhat artificial.
...My SLE friend talked like this too, like personality is something you become aware of and then you build off of traits. Like you can't breathe properly after you start to notice yourself breathing? I think I tend to see that as an unconscious part of life whereas she spoke about it more as something people direct (?), and I still don't know if that was just a difference in language or perception. It made me see the weakness in my own viewpoint (treating how I or others present as "natural", even when we are all manipulating who we are, at every moment). (???)


BTW I type Bourdain ILE, and I can see him playing to a schtick b/c marketing, or to hide his true self, or whatever.