This absolute hero came to the rescue when flash floods in a World Cup city left two women stranded in their submerged cars. Here: A woman is rescued from a car after a flash flood in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on June 19, 2018. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Police officers detain a woman during an unsanctioned rally in the center of Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 27, 2019. Russian police are wrestling with demonstrators and have arrested hundreds in central Moscow during a protest demanding that opposition candidates be allowed to run for the Moscow city council. (Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo)

Participants take part in the annual Great Spitalfields Pancake Race in aid of London's Air Ambulance in London, Britain February 9, 2016. (Photo by Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)

The Royal Castle is seen a veil of heavy winter smog in Budapest, Hungary on January 30, 2017. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/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.

Participants climb over a wall at the “Tough Mudder” endurance event series in Arnsberg September 6, 2014. Competitors who took part in the endurance event saw themselves having to overcome various military style obstacles. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/Reuters)

Filipino boys play basketball at an improvised court hooked on multi-layered tombs at a public cemetery in Navotas, north of Manila, Philippines on Thursday Oct. 31, 2013. Filipinos are expected to flock to cemeteries on November 1 to remember their dead as they observe All Saints Day in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

A heavily tattooed Japanese woman poses for photographs near Asakusa Temple during the third and final day of Sanja Festival, on May 20, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. Sanja Festival is one of Japan's major festivals and is held annually in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)