Monster girl Crazy Sa-ya, an iconic Harajuku girl and a staff member of the cafe, wearing a face mask poses for a photograph at Kawaii Monster Cafe, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan on January 31, 2021. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

American singer and songwriter Ava Max gestures as she arrives at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 27, 2021. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

People attend the 49th annual New York City Gay Pride Parade in New York, New York, USA on 24 June 2018. (Photo by Erik Pendzich/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Tightrope walker Tatian-Mosio Bongonga hangs from a tightrope as she pauses while scaling the Monmartre hill towards the Sacre Coeur Basilica (not pictured) in Paris, France, July 20, 2018. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

A small section of the expanding remains of the Veil Nebula, a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago. The entire nebula is 110 light-years across, covering six full moons on the sky as seen from Earth, and resides about 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Released September 24, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team)

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 curious leopard cub toys with a camera at MalaMala Game Reserve in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. (Photo by Barcroft Media)

The giant mural titled “Under the Hand” by Maclaim Crew is visible on a building facade in Kreuzberg district on June 26, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin, with its long tradition of counter-culture, has become a mecca for street art of all dimensions and messages. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)