People have their photographs taken as they throw fallen leaves in autumn colours in Tokyo on November 13, 2022. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP Photo)

A gull gives its familiar cry on the roof of a beach bar on the Baltic coast on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Jens Büttner/dpa)

Derek Hough, right, and Julianne Hough, co-winners of the award fo rOutstanding Choreography for “Dancing with the Stars”, pose in the press room at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Saturday, September 12, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Photo)

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.

Common seals are reintroduced to the wild on the beach of the island Juist, Germany, 28 July 2014. It is the first reintroduction to the wild drive of the seal breading station Norddeich this year. (Photo by Carmen Jaspersen/EPA)

Model Hailey Baldwin is seen walking in Soho on February 10, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

An interior of a car damaged by the floods is pictured in the town of Braunsbach, Germany, May 30, 2016. The flood tore through Braunsbach, crushing cars, ripping corners of houses and flooding homes during a storm that hit southwestern Germany. Miraculously no one in Braunsbach was killed, though three people died as a result of the storm in other parts of the country. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

A picture made available on 14 July 2016 shows Greyhound dogs racing at the Wentworth Park Stadium in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, 13 July 2016. Greyhound racing has returned to Sydney's Wentworth Park and other NSW tracks for the first time since the state government announced plans to ban it. NSW Premier Mike Baird announced last week plans to shut down the sport in NSW following a Special Commission of Inquiry report that found “chilling” evidence of systemic animal cruelty within the industry. (Photo by David Moir/EPA)