A woman carries her child as she watches Mount Sinabung volcano spewing thick volcanic ash, as seen from Karo on July 21, 2017. Sinabung roared back to life in 2010 for the first time in 400 years, after another period of inactivity it erupted once more in 2013, and has remained highly active since. (Photo by Gatha Ginting/AFP Photo)

Workers wearing face masks as a protection against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) carry roasted pigs, locally known as “lechon”, at a restaurant, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, December 21, 2020. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

A Hindu devotee drinks water from the Ganges River at the Sangam area, the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati, in Allahabad on March 16, 2021. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

A helicopter drops fire retardent to protect a property in Balmoral, 150 kilometres southwest of Sydney on December 19, 2019. A state of emergency was declared in Australia's most populated region on December 19, as a record heat wave fanned unprecedented bushfires. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

Men make sweets at a small traditional factory in preparation for Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 21, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

Revellers get into the spirit of the 40th annual Zomercarnaval – summer carnival – in Rotterdam on July 28, 2024. The two-day event is such in integral part of Netherlands tradition it was added to Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list last year. (Phoot by James Petermeier/ZUMA Press Wire)

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.

Soldiers of People's Liberation Army (PLA) Lanzhou Military Region jump through a burning obstacle during a training session at a military base in Tianshui, Gansu province, China, January 6, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)