Brazilian model and actress Alessandra Ambrosio seen wearing a Gucci fanny pack and boots from Dior on April 15, 2018 in Indio, California. (Photo by Timur Emek/GC Images)

Models pose in creations from the Salinas collection during Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, April 25, 2018. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

Senior Buddhist monk Lobsang Tayang sits outside the Amarbayasgalant Monastery in the Baruunburen district, Selenge province, Mongolia, April 26, 2018. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A vendor wearing a protective face mask looks out of her store selling sugar-coated haws on a stick in Beijing, Sunday, April 12, 2020. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

The Frecce Tricolori perform over a deserted Via del Corso on Liberation Day following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rome, Italy, April 25, 2020. (Photo by Remo Casilli/Reuters)

Crews prepare hot air balloons for the Kentucky Derby Festival Great Balloonfest Rush Hour Race at Bowman Field on Friday, April 26, 2024. (Photo by Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal)

I would like to tell you why many artists, who like me, have painted portraits and landscapes in oils on canvas, worked with acrylics, watercolors, and pen and ink drawings, have turned to the art of gourd carving.

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.