Irish dancer Holly Venables on day three of the Cheltenham Racing Festival at Prestbury Park in Cheltenham, England on March 13, 2025. (Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile)

Fire ravages vegetation during the Cerro de los Pinos wildfire on August 04, 2025 in Cáceres, Spain. Firefighters from Cáceres and INFOEX forest firefighters are battling fires, as high temperatures continue to put the Extremadura region at extreme risk of further wildfires. (Photo by Carlos Gil Andreu/Getty Images)

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.

“Himalayan Dog”. This dog just appeared out of nowhere and followed us for an entire week during our trekking trip in the Himalayan outback. He always used to sleep in front of our tent and guarded us in the nights. When I decided to get up at 4 a.m. to climb the next 5000 m peak for sunrise he accompanied me as well. On the top he was sitting for the entire 30 minutes on this place looking straight into the countryside. Photo location: Ladakh, India. (Photo and caption by Sebastian Wahlhuetter/National Geographic Photo Contest)

In this image distributed on Tuesday, September 29, 2015, 11-year old dance star Taylor Hatala and friends are seen filming their new Monster High Boo York, Boo York music video #CityGhouls in Los Angeles. (Photo by Casey Rodgers/Invision for Mattel/AP Images)

An idol of Hindu goddess Durga floats in water as devotees immerse the same in the River Kuakhai after the Durga Puja festival in Bhubaneswar, India, Saturday, October 24, 2015. The immersion of idols marks the end of the festival that commemorates the slaying of a demon king by lion-riding, 10-armed goddess Durga, marking the triumph of good over evil. (Photo by Biswaranjan Rout/AP Photo)

Gifts for the homeless are handed out during Santa Bar Crawl, Oxford, England on December 5, 2017. Here: Oxford university students on a Santa-themed pub crawl. (Photo by Greg Blatchford/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man passes a poster depicting French presidential election candidate for the far-right Front National (FN) party Marine Le Pen with the face of U.S. President Donald Trump reading “Do not Trump yourself. Choose France. Vote!” on May 5, 2017 in Paris. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)