Female labourers wearing helmets take a break from laying underground electricity cables in Ahmedabad, India, March 7, 2016. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Chinese model Ming Xi falls down on runway during the 2017 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at Mercedes-Benz Arena on November 20, 2017 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

An Afghan boy covers himself with a plastic sheet as he rides on a donkey after rains in Argo district of Badakhshan province on March 20, 2023. (Photo by Omer Abrar/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.

Afghan children enjoy their time on Nadir Khan hill during the first day of Eid al-Fitr in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, April 21, 2023. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Italian television presenter Diletta Leotta stunned in a bold black dress in the first decade of November 2025. (Photo by @DilettaLeotta/Instagram)

North Korean children wave to people on a Chinese tourist boat on the banks of Yalu River near the Chongsong county of North Korea, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, May 8, 2011. (Photo by Jacky Chen/Reuters)

Life-size sеx dolls are displayed during the 2016 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 20, 2016 in Las Vegas, United States. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic)