Members of the “Avalon” team wearing 14th century knight costumes fight against each other on the bank of the Yenisei River during the regional amateurs tournament of clubs of historical reconstruction, “The Battle of the Nations 2015. Siberia”, in Krasnoyarsk January 24, 2015. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/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.

A woman poses for a photograph in front of a 3D painting at HK 3D Museum in Hong Kong June 26, 2014. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Stage winner France Kevin Vauquelin climbs during the second stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 199.2 kilometers (123.8 miles) with start in Cesenatico and finish in Bologna, Italy, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Photo by (Etienne Garnier/Pool Photo via AP Photo)

Members of the police forces of Republic of Srpska march during a parade marking the 30th anniversary of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka, northern Bosnia, Sunday, January 9, 2022. This week Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik was slapped with new U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption. Dodik maintains the West is punishing him for championing the rights of ethnic Serbs in Bosnia – a dysfunctional country of 3.3 million that's never truly recovered from a fratricidal war in the 1990s that became a byname for ethnic cleansing and genocide. (Photo by Radivoje Pavicic/AP Photo)

A bandana-clad anti-government demonstrator gestures as she stands by the smoke of burning tires at a make-shift roadblock in Zouk Mosbeh north of Lebanon's capital Beirut, on March 8, 2021 during a protest against the deteriorating value of the local currency and dire economic and social conditions. (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP Photo)

Workers hang thousands of different colorful fabrics on iron wires tied between a bamboo framework and constantly turn them so that they dry perfectly in a flooded field in Narayanganj, Bangladesh on March 16, 2022. (Photo by Joy Saha/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Oleh Psiuk, frontman of Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra and vocalist Sasha Tab, right, are pictured by a fan before leaving the Universo Hotel, after winning the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, in Turin, Italy, Sunday, May 15, 2022. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)