"You're putting yourself out there in the public eye and selling what's essentially your personality, so if the public buys you for 12 bucks in a movie and pays for popcorn, well, you feel you own a little bit of that person." - Jonathan Rhys Meyers, in British Glamour, about fame
Jonathan has used the pronoun "you" in an ambiguous manner. Furthermore, depending on the interpretation of his statement, he has made either an incorrect shift in number or an incorrect shift in person.
Jonathan begins his statement with "You're putting yourself out there." His use of "you" seems to refer to actors: actors put themselves out there; actors sell their personalities; the public buys actors for 12 bucks. When he says, "You feel you own a little bit of that person," does he mean that an actor feels he owns the person who bought the ticket, or that the person who bought the ticket feels he owns the actor?
If Jonathan is trying to explain that actors feel a profound responsibility for the people who watch their movies, he has made a shift in number. He refers to "the public," and he is correct in using the singular verbs "buys" and "pays" because "the public" is a collective noun. However, as a collective noun, "the public" refers to a group of people; therefore, his switch to the singular "that person" at the end of the sentence is incorrect. To maintain consistency throughout the sentence, change "that person" to "those people."
If Jonathan means that the people who buy tickets feel as if they own a little bit of the actor they are paying to see, he has made an error in pronoun person shift. The best way to correct the sentence would be to change the singular antecedent "the public" to the plural "people" and use the third person plural pronoun "they" to refer back to the antecedent. To clarify the meaning of the statement further, maintain consistency by changing "that person" to "you."
If Jonathan thinks that actors own little pieces of the people who watch them, this is what he should have said:
"You're putting yourself out there in the public eye and selling what's essentially your personality, so if the public buys you for 12 bucks in a movie and pays for popcorn, well, you feel you own a little bit of those people."
If Jonathan believes that the people who pay to watch actors feel as if they own little pieces of the actors, this is what he should have said:
"You're putting yourself out there in the public eye and selling what's essentially your personality, so if people buy you for 12 bucks in a movie and pay for popcorn, well, they feel they own a little bit of you."
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