The Killing Eve star, English actress Jodie Comer attends The Olivier Awards 2023 at Royal Albert Hall on April 2, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire Press Association)

Competitors take part in the Rude Health World Bog Snorkelling Championships at Waen Rhydd peat bog in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales on Sunday, August 27, 2023. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

Eleonora Brunacci and Mariano Di Vaio walk the red carpet ahead of the “Racer And The Jailbird (Le Fidele)” screening during the 74th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on September 8, 2017 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

People take part in the annual LGBTQ Pride parade in Bangkok, Thailand on June 4, 2023. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Actress Lily Collins is seen filming on set of series 2 of “Emily In Paris” on May 4, 2021 in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/GC Images)

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.

Actress Sophia Loren teases the hair of critic Gene Shalit in New York, Tuesday, February 20, 1979. During the filming of a segment for the NBC television “Today” show. In the background is a large photograph of Miss Loren. The segment is scheduled for airing later this week. (Photo by Dave Pickoff/AP Photo)

An undated handout image provided by UNICEF Germany on 20 December 2016 shows the “UNICEF Photo of the Year 2016” by Iranian freelance photographer Arez Ghaderi. Ghaderi won the first prize for his picture of a girl in a makeshift tent city in the Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, it was announced at a ceremony in Berlin, Germany on 20 December 2016. (Photo by Ariz Ghaderi/EPA/UNICEF Deutschland)