Canadian actress Ellen Page and wife Emma Portner arrive at “The Cured” – Los Angeles Special Screening on February 20, 2018 at AMC Dine-In Sunset 5 in West Hollywood, CA. (Photo by Parisa Michelle/Splash News and Pictures)

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.

A woman dressed up for Halloween travels on a Metro train in São Paulo, Brazil on October 30, 2017. (Photo by Cris Faga/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A law enforcement officer stands guard near a damaged multi-storey residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region, Russia on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

The Soulton Long Barrow in Shropshire, UK on January 5, 2025. The main chamber is aligned so that at winter solstice and for a few weeks after, the sun sets directly through the stained glass door, resulting in a beautifuil rainbow of light to flood through the chamber. (Photo by Andrew Fusek Peters/South West News Service)

Participants wearing colorful costumes take part in the Flowers Parade of the 151th annual Carnival of Nice, in Nice, France, 20 March 2024. The annual Carnival of Nice run from 17 February to 03 March 2024, and the main theme will be “King of Pop Culture”. (Photo by Sebastien Nogier/EPA)

A visitor walks on a giant chalk artwork called “Wasting Time” at the Chalk Urban Arts Festival in Sydney on October 25, 2014. The picture is the biggest 3-D artwork created in Australia by two artists, Leon Keer from Holland and Jenny McCracken from Australia. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

An Iraqi military vehicle passes displaced Iraqi boys returning to their homes in West Mosul's Oreibi neighbourhood after government forces retook control of the area from the Islamic State (IS) group during the ongoing offensive against the jihadists on May 21, 2017. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)