Former Towie star, English television personality Jess Wright kissed her younger sister Natalya on the lips in a loving birthday post. Model Natalya is celebrating her 23rd birthday in the first decade of August 2023 – and Jess shared a selection of snaps to mark the occasion. (Photo by Instagram)

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.

Protester Nadine Wolf demonstrates against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) outside the offices of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on January 18, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

A Vietnamese artist acting as a medium, performs the “Hau Dong” ritual at Viet Theatre in Hanoi January 16, 2016. For the first time, Vietnamese drama director Viet Tu has brought the ritual from religious temples to the theatre partly to draw tourists. The “Hau Dong” is a ritual where a medium puts on special costumes and tells stories of gods and heroes while being accompanied by “Chau Van” music, as part of the act of Dao Mau – the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam. It is believed that the medium is capable of having a direct contact with spirits during the ritual. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

A South Korean soldier wear North Korea's military uniform, acting as North Korean soldier during an anti-terror and anti-chemical drill session held as part of the 2011 Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) event on August 17, 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. The 11-day UGC, which features drills including the handling of chemical and biological attacks, is a regular joint exercise between US and South Korean troops to prepare for potential emergencies on the Korean Peninsula. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Puryanti, a 29-year-old woman, and her 15-year-old nephew Raffi, cover themselves from head to toe in silver paint to become “manusia silver” (silver people), as part of their act to make a living, in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, February 6, 2021. (Photo by Adi Kurniawan/Reuters)

A mother bear acting as a taxi for her cubs and they jump on for a piggyback. Two sloth bear cubs fighting for the best place on mum's back as she carries them across Coonoor, India in July 2022. (Photo by Ranganathan Vasudevan/Media Drum Images)