American socialite Kim Kardashian (L) and American fashion designer Sarah Staudinger attend a playoff basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena on May 08, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)

Lazar and his sister Andjelka sit by a candle in their home in the eastern Serbian town of Majdanpek, December 4, 2014. Electricity workers in Serbia struggled through snow, ice and treacherous terrain on Thursday to restore electricity to an eastern town left shivering without power, heating or running water for a fourth day. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Tsar Alexander II (1818–1881) known as “The Liberator” lying in state. He was mortally wounded by an assassination attack in St Petersburg. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). March 1881

People attend in costume the 2022 New York Comic Con, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., October 6, 2022. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Unsettled life in Europe failed to change the slow pace of life on the Isle of Capri, off Naples, Italy. Some of the socialites who have come there to relax enjoy an aquatic luncheon serviced in the cool Mediterranean, September 1, 1939. Swimming waiters push out the floating tables bearing meals which include wine and spaghetti. In the background are the rocks of Faraglioni. (Photo by Hamilton Wright/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.

Labourers push wooden boards before carrying them to construct a temporary pontoon bridge over the Ganges river for the upcoming Hindu festival of Magh Mela in Allahabad on November 24, 2019. The Magh Mela is held every year on the banks of Triveni Sangam – the confluence of the three great rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mystical Saraswati – in Allahabad during the Hindu month of Magh which corresponds to mid January – mid February. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

Actress Liv Tyler, 40, stripped in shots for the Triumph Essence's Autumn/Winter 2017 campaign in November, 2017. The Essence line is Triumph’s premium offering, with this season taking on the theme of “opulent Art Nouveau”, featuring designs in velvet embellished mesh, Leavers lace and silk satin. (Photo by Rankin/The Mega Agency)