Mike Bennett wears a Patriot face mask on his mouth as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 while skateboarding with his dog amid the novel coronavirus pandemic in Huntington Beach, California on April 25, 2020. Orange County is the only county in the area where beaches remain open, lifeguards in Huntington Beach expect tens of thousands of people to flock the beach this weekend due to the heat wave. Lifeguards and law enforcement are patrolling the beach to make sure people are keeping their distance. (Photo by Apu Gomes/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.

A girl has her face painted during the 236th annual Military, Civic, and Firemen’s Parade as part of 4th of July celebrations in Bristol, Rhode Island, U.S., July 5, 2021. (Photo by Quinn Glabicki/Reuters)

A woman dressed as the Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy walks her dog dressed as the Cowardly Lion as they attend the annual Congressional Dog Costume Parade on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on October 27, 2021. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP Photo)

Chad Rowley and his wife Susan race during the 22nd North American Wife Carrying Championship at Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine, on October 9, 2021. Couples compete on a 278-yard (254-meter) obstacle course for a prize of wife's weight in beer and five times her weight in money. Winners are invited to the world championship in Finland where the sport originated. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)

A participant of the XIV International Ballet Competition prepares herself backstage before performing at the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

“The Carnival Triumph finally made port on Thursday night, after what should have been an idyllic four-day cruise turned into a grueling week-long ordeal for more than 3,000 passengers and 1,000 crew. Some kissed the ground as they disembarked the ship, while others swore never to go on another cruise again. Many spoke of the well-documented unsanitary conditions on board the 272-metre Triumph, which lost power in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday”. – Tom Dart and Adam Gabbatt via Guardian

Photo: Kendall Jenkins of Houston kisses the ground after stepping off the Carnival ship Triumph (Photo by AP Photo)

16-year-old panda, Ye Ye, rests in an enclosure at the Wolong Nature Reserve, a conservation center that trains pandas for release into the wild. This image was published in the August 2016 National Geographic magazine as part of the “Pandas Gone Wild” story. (Photo by Ami Vitale/National Geographic Creative)