Cosplayers attend Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Reuters)

American model Hailey Bieber attends the 2025 GQ Men Of The Year at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 13, 2025. (Photo by Aude Guerrucci/Reuters)

The American skier Lindsey Vonn celebrates winning the women’s downhill race in the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup on December 12, 2025. She is joined on the podium by Moritz, the competition’s official mascot, named after the Swiss resort in which it is held. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Farmers feed crabs under Metasequoia at the Sihong County Ecological Breeding Base in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, China, on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Anthony Joshua, right, punches Jake Paul during their heavyweight boxing match, Friday, December 19, 2025, in Miami, Fla. (Photo by Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)

White Bengal tiger named Romina is pictured inside its new enclosure at La Aurora Zoo in Guatemala City on October 24, 2024. (Photo by Johan Ordonez/AFP 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.

Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. A lingering sense of loss and longing hints at emotional depth and draws the viewer into their introspective thrall with a mixture of capricious poetry, wit, and mystery. (Photo by Mike Stilkey)