About a dozen dogs traded in their leashes for life vests Saturday for the chance to ride the waves at Jupiter beach as part of a canine surfing competition to raise money for an animal rescue group. Photo: Musso paddles in with Jengo. (Photo by Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

The Bratz Rock Angels are displayed at the Dream Toys 2005 Pre-Christmas Expo on October 5, 2005 in London. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

A model presents a creation from the Tom Ford Spring/Summer 2015 collection during London Fashion Week September 15, 2014. (Photo by Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dances during the reception in honour of heads of the delegations at the Russia-ASEAN summit in Sochi, Russia, May 19, 2016. (Photo by Host photo agency via Reuters)

2016 Rio Olympics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Preliminary, Group All-Around Qualification, Rotation 1, Rio Olympic Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 20, 2016. Team Brazil (BRA) compete using clubs and hoops. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

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.

Western lowland gorilla Kijivu holds her newborn baby at the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic. (Photo by Isifa/Getty Images)

Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)