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)

People perform acroyoga style exercices at South Pointe in Miami Beach, Florida, on February 8, 2023. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP Photo)

The villas of Marabe Al Dhafra in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates are home to approximately 2,000 people. Located in one of the hottest regions of the world, the record high temperature here is 49.2C° (120.6F°). (Photo by Benjamin Grant/Penguin Random House)

Indonesian tourists take a selfie as Mount Bromo spews volcanic material and ash into the air during an eruption in Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia, 31 December 2015. Indonesia's Mount Bromo is on the second highest alert level as its activity has increased in the last two months. (Photo by Fully Handoko/EPA)

A woman holds piles of vegetables transported by motorcycle along a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on January 22, 2020. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

A patient solves a rubik's cube at a temporary hospital converted from “Wuhan Livingroom” in central China's Hubei Province on February 10, 2020. In face of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, Wuhan authorities have transformed public venues such as exhibition centers and gymnasiums into temporary hospitals. The hospitals have a large capacity of treating patients with mild symptoms and play an important role in isolating the source of infection and cutting off the routes of infection during epidemic prevention. The first batch of patients was hospitalized on Feb. 5. (Photo by Chine Nouvelle/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)