A man walks near a tree unrooted by high winds brought by Super Typhoon Saola in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong on September 1, 2023. Super Typhoon Saola threatened southern China on September 1 with some of the strongest winds the region has endured, forcing the megacities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen to effectively shut down. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

The sun sets behind the Giant Swing, also known as Sao Chingcha, in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 6, 2025. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos during the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, US, on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (Photo by Brendan McDermid
/Reuters)

Jade Cargill takes out Alba Fyre and Zoey Stark during WWE's Clash at the Castle, Premium Live Event at The OVO Hydro on June 15, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by WWE/Getty 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.

An astonishing set of snaps of a thrill-seeker's sky-high catwalk show on the edge of some of the world's tallest buildings has turned her into a social media sensation. Daredevil Angelina Nikolau, 23, from Russia, has spent weeks travelling around China and Hong Kong posing for jaw-dropping skyscraper selfies hundreds of feet above the ground. Her vertigo inducing results – uploaded to Instagram – have made her an instant star on the internet. (Photo by Kirill Oreshkin/CEN)

Samburu tribesmen stand during the Maralal Camel Derby, Kenya, August 15, 2015. Maralal, a small, arid town about an eight-hour drive north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, holds an annual camel festival, bringing together members of the Samburu, Turkana and Pokot semi-nomadic cattle-herding tribes. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

“Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio”. – Wikipedia

Photo: American-Chinese actress Anna May Wong wearing an Oriental-style costume and headdress. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images). Circa 1935