Participants wearing colorful costumes take part in the Flowers Parade of the 151th annual Carnival of Nice, in Nice, France, 20 March 2024. The annual Carnival of Nice run from 17 February to 03 March 2024, and the main theme will be “King of Pop Culture”. (Photo by Sebastien Nogier/EPA)

Participants jump over a bonfire as they celebrate the Pagan holiday of Ivan Kupala, a traditional holiday that has been observed in Ukraine since pre-Christian times, in Kyiv, on June 23, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP Photo)

Cailee Spaeny and Kerry Washington attend Netflix's “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” Los Angeles premiere on November 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Roger Kisby/Getty Images for Netflix)

An owl curiously peeks out from a tree hollow. The pictures of the spotted owlet were taken by Anuj Jain in Chandigarh, India in the second decade of November 2025. (Photo by Anuj Jain/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A member of the public places her head in Drew McDonald's sculpture Sharnana, during the Sculpture by the Sea media launch event along the Bondi to Tamarama Coastal walk in Sydney, Australia, 18 October 2024. (Photo by Bianca de Marchi/EPA/EFE)

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 female Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighter stands near a security position in Sinjar, March 13, 2015. Women fighters at a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) base on Mount Sinjar in northwest Iraq, just like their male counterparts, have to be ready for action at any time. Smoke from the front line, marking their battle against Islamic State, which launched an assault on northern Iraq last summer, is visible from the base. Many of the women have cut links with their families back home; the fighters come from all corners of the Kurdish region. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih /Reuters)

A Thai villager runs with a bullock during a catching a bullock competition as part of the annual bullock cart racing festival in Phetchaburi province, Thailand, 21 February 2016. The annual bullock cart race festival held to celebrate the end of the harvest season. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA)