Viking re-enactors representing the rival armies of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons skirmish near Clifford’s Tower during the Jorvik Viking Festival on February 23, 2019 in York, England. The annual Jorvik Viking Festival held in York is recognised as the largest event of its kind in Europe. This year the festival remembers the role that the Viking women played during those turbulent times. (Photo by Christopher Thomond/The Guardian)

A female rebel in Kabul, Afghanistan, circa 1979. Photo taken at a parade in Kabul in honor of the pro-Communist Saur Revolution. She was from the women’s battalion of the people’s militia (one of the anti-imperial groups that participated in the coup d’etat). (Photo by Viktor Khabarov)

Looking for love by Tony Wu, USA. Highly commended, Animal Portraits. “Accentuating his mature appearance with pastel colours, protruding lips and an outstanding pink forehead, this Asian sheepshead wrasse sets out to impress females and see off rivals, which he will head-butt and bite, near Japan’s remote Sado Island. Individuals start out as females, and when they reach a certain age and size – up to a metre (more than 3 feet) long – can transform into males. Long-lived and slow-growing, the species is intrinsically vulnerable to overfishing”. (Photo by Tony Wu/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A young male fiddler crab is dwarfed by an older male of the same species, looming behind it at Morua estuary, in the Gulf of California, Mexico on January 4, 2022. Whereas female fiddler crabs have small claws of equal sizes, the males’ pincers can vary in size, with the small one used to pick up food and the larger to impress females. (Photo by Claudio Contreras/Solent News)

Colton Herta crashes in the first turn during the final practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Friday, May 27, 2022. (Photo by Joe Watts/AP Photo)

A police officer fires tear gas at protesters after the presidential election results were announced in Kisumu, Kenya on August 15, 2022. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his wife Ri Sol Ju and Song Tao, head of the International Department of Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, applaud with ballet dancers in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang April 17, 2018. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)

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.