What is the 'real you'?

What is the 'real you'? Buddhist book says everyone's true nature is Buddha-nature, but that Buddha-nature is displayed differently in everyone. But then how is it all Buddha-nature? Is the real you something deep down inside? What if inside is a bad person, like a sociopath? Should you still be the real you if you are deep down a sociapathic criminal mastermind? But if you strive to be something that is not the real you will you ever suceed? Like are 'ex-gays' really no longer gay because they strive not to be or are they just not practicing homosexuality while still being homosexual which is living a lie??? [On this topic, I personally believe the latter, but I don't know if this applies to everything in the same way.] Also, how much of the current 'you' is a coping mechanisms & habits & peer pressure & self-pressure? How far back does one have to go to find the real, unpolluted self? What, if anything, is left when you remove the current you that you've become because of all your past experiences and habits, etc?

According to the Buddhist perspective, it would seem that if we are all deep down Buddha-natured, and Buddha-nature is good & true & awakened to reality, then deep down that is what we are when we get rid of all the past and our illusions and our pointless striving. This should be true even of the sociopaths and serial killers. I wonder if Lama Surya Das thinks that the worst of the sociopathic criminals can change and realize their true Buddha-nature, especially in this lifetime?

I suppose the more important question for me is if I can change during this lifetime.