Aerial view of people circling around bonfires to celebrate the Torch Festival on Axilixi Prairie on July 20, 2024 in Bijie, Guizhou Province of China. (Photo by Luo Dafu/VCG via Getty Images)

Mother hen chicken with cute tiny baby chicks all protected beneath her wings keeping warm outdoors only their 12 legs visible poking out the bottom outside. (Photo by Matthew Troke/iStockphoto via Getty Images)

A woman carries portraits of Red Army soldiers during the celebrations of Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Almaty, Kazakhstan on May 9, 2023. (Photo by Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters)

Sunrise over the River Thames and Tower Bridge in London today morning on January 28, 2024. It has been forecast that Sahara dust will be in the atmosphere. (Photo by Alister Gooding/Picture Exclusive)

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.

Thomas Thwaites of the United Kingdom accepts the 2016 Ig Nobel Prize in Biology for “creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming the hills in the company of, goats” during the 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. September 22, 2016. (Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters)

A visitor takes a photo of a boulder plastic made of synthetic material called “To be in Limbo” hangs from the ceiling of the 20 meter high Jesuit Church in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, November 25, 2014. The eight meter high, hollow and 700 kilogram heavy sculpture from the artists group Steinbrener/Dempf and Huber is supposed to symbolize faith and its threatening moments. The installation will remain until April 19, 2015 and then move to a church in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Ronald Zak/AP Photo)

(L-R) Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid pose backstage prior to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)