During rehearsals, colourful puppets bring the Loch Ness monster to life on March 27, 2025 for the new musical Nessie, which transforms the mystery of the loch into a vibrant stage production. The show runs from March 28 to April 5 at The Studio, Edinburgh, before moving to Pitlochry Festival Theatre. (Photo by Fraser Band/Jam Press)

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.

Kamchatka brown bears at Kurile Lake in Kamchatka peninsula’s volcanic terrain, Russia on August, 2017. Kamchatka brown bears are generally not dangerous to humans, and only 1% of encounters result in attack. (Photo by Igor Ivanko/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Participants wear traditional clogs as shepherds lead their sheep through the center of Madrid, October 28, 2012. (Photo by Andres Kudacki/Associated Press)

An Indian girl dressed in traditional attire reacts to camera as she watches a cultural performance during Lohri festival in Jammu, India, Monday, January 13, 2014. Lohri is a celebration of the winter solstice observed by Hindus and Sikhs in northern India. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

In this Friday, February 6, 2015 photo, sandhill cranes begin to stir after resting for the night at a roosting location along their winter migration route in Cecilia, Ky. According to counts made by biologists with the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources, about 12,000 of the birds have stopped in Cecilia this week during their winter northward migration on their way to their nesting grounds in the Great Lakes region. (Photo by David Stephenson/AP Photo)

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift eyes are caught in a photographer's flash as she arrives on the red carpet for the “Billboard Women in Music” event in Los Angeles, California, U.S., December 12, 2019. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)