In this Wednesday, July 13, 2016, handout image provided by Solar Impulse, the Solar Impulse 2 flying over the pyramids, Egypt Cairo. The experimental solar-powered airplane has arrived in Egypt as part of its global voyage. (Photo by Jean Revillard, Rezo via the AP Photo)

A 71-day-old male Kalimantan orangutan, a critically endangered species, born in the zoo but neglected by its 9-year-old mother Shakila, is held by an animal care taker at Bandung Zoological Gardens in Bandung, West Java on February 21, 2025. (Photo by Timur Matahari/AFP Photo)

A Haitian woman lies in a trance during a voodoo ceremony in Souvenance, a suburb of Gonaives, 171 km north of Port- au- Prince, on April 16, 2017. Haitian voodoo followers arrived in Souvenance to take part in the voodoo ceremonies held during Easter weekend. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

A police officer wearing a Balinese traditional mask, called celuluk, performs as the new coronavirus during a campaign to wear masks as a precaution against the virus outbreak at a market in Bali, Indonesia, Thursday, May 14, 2020. (Photo by Firdia Lisnawati/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.

A Black movement activist covered by red paint attends a protest against racism and police violence, and against a police operation that took place at Jacarezinho slum in Rio de Janeiro, on the day that marks 133 years since the abolition of Slavery in the country, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 13, 2021. (Photo by Amanda Perobelli/Reuters)

Canberra resident Bruce Gibbons is seen surrounded by grazing kangaroos as he plays a shot during a session on a practice fairway at Gold Creek Golf Club in Canberra, Australia, May 16, 2017. (Photo by Lukas Coch/Reuters/AAP)

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, visible above Old Gardur Lighthouse on the northern point of the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland on Sunday, November 24, 2024. The lighthouse dates to 1897, and was one of the first built in Iceland. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)