Arisa Trew of Australia competes during the women's skateboarding park final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, August 6, 2024, in Paris, France. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

Two Inuit children at Point Barrow, Alaska, holding the tusks of a large walrus, probably killed for food, circa 1930. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

David Bowie wears an eyepatch in red suit and guitar on blue background at Top Pop television studios in Holland while doing playback to his hit song Rebel Rebel in 1974. (Photo by Barry Schultz/Sunshine/REX Shutterstock)

A general view shows smoke and volcanic ashes billowing from volcano Cotopaxi in Pedregal, Ecuador, late 07 October 2015. (Photo by Jose Jacome/EPA)

First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

French President Emmanuel Macron performs at the Shrine Africa in Lagos on July 3, 2018. French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Abuja for a meeting with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari, in his latest attempt to forge closer ties with English- speaking Africa. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP Photo)

An alligator named Muja is seen in its enclosure in Belgrade's Zoo, Serbia, August 14, 2018. Muja is officially the oldest American alligator in the world living in captivity. He was brought to Belgrade from Germany in 1937, a year after the opening of the Zoo. Muja survived three bombings of Belgrade, the Second World War and all hardships the Zoo went through. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)