A man rides past a destroyed tank in Mesobit, Ethiopia, on December 06, 2021. (Photo by Amanuel Sileshi/AFP Photo)

Filipino children frolic next to ships taking shelter inside a seaport in Navotas city, north of Manila, Philippines, 27 August 2019. According to the latest advisory from Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Tropical Storm Podul intensified from a tropical depression into a tropical storm on August 27, while moving toward Central Luzon with a maximum winds of 65 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 80 km/h. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

Indigenous Q'eqchi girls practice taekwondo with their teacher, Danny Coy, on a dirt court in the middle of the village in Tipulcan village, San Pedro Carcha, Guatemala, on 25 November 2019 (issued 27 November 2019). Tipulcan village girls learn taekwondo to combat sexist violence and harassment they have suffered in their community in northern Guatemala. (Photo by Esteban Biba/EPA/EFE)

The Macy's inflation team works on giant balloons as they prepare ahead of the 96th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, United States on November 23, 2022. (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A father and son spend all day fishing in Naogaon, northern Bangladesh in the first decade of December 2024, before heading to market to sell their 3kg catch for the equivalent of a few pounds. The vibrant green algae makes conditions difficult but that does not deter them. (Photo by Estiak Ahmed Munna/Solent News)

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.

Santa Claus reacts as (L) Tami McEleney and (R) Patrice Conner whisper in his ear at the King of Prussia Mall, United States' largest retail shopping space, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, U.S., December 8, 2018. (Photo by Mark Makela/Reuters)

Students pose for a picture with a 3- D optical illusion artwork of a devastated cityscape in Aleppo, Syria at the campus of the Meiji University in Tokyo on November 18, 2016. The Japanese branch of the human rights organisation Amnesty International displayed the artwork to encourage people to think about the Syrian civil war. (Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP Photo)