I was trying to get them to say what they probably wanted to say, to break out of their own cocoon of the public self, and the more public they had been, the more entrenched that person, that outer person was.
J'essayais d'obtenir d'eux ce que probablement ils voulaient dire, briser le cocon de leur personnage public, et plus public ils ont été, plus retranchés ils étaient.