Competitors take part in the 8th annual World Gravy Wrestling Championships at the Rose n Bowl Pub in Bacup, north west England on August 31, 2015. Contestants must participate in fancy dress and wrestle in a pool of Lancashire Gravy for 2 minutes whilst being scored for a variety of wrestling moves. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)

Yana Shcherban of Russia looks at the ball after failing to receive it during their FIVB Women's Volleyball World Grand Prix 2014 final round against Japan in Tokyo August 20, 2014. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

Jimmy Arnold, an overweight boy from Rochester, bites into a cake. (Photo by Reg Birkett/Keystone/Getty Images). 14th April 1951

“The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group, with an estimated 10–11 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Small numbers also live in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. Their language, Zulu, is a Bantu language; more specifically, part of the Nguni subgroup. The Zulu Kingdom played a major role in South African history during the 19th and 20th centuries. Under apartheid, Zulu people were classed as third-class citizens and suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination. They remain today the most numerous ethnic group in South Africa, and now have equal rights along with all other citizens”. – Wikipedia.

Photo: A Zulu woman playing the piano while a group of others sit and listen (to put it briefly, Englishmen scoff over Zulu). South Africa, circa 1925. (Photo by General Photographic Agency)

Film actress Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) on a film set with her pet poodle, circa 1960. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A woman poses next to two mailboxes along a street in Taipei on August 11, 2015 that were reportedly bent by strong winds brought by Typhoon Soudelor over the weekend. The two iron mailboxes have become an unlikely attraction, drawing thousands of snap-happy visitors and have even become a backdrop to a wedding photo shoot. The typhoon, which hit in the early hours of August 8 and was billed as the most powerful typhoon this year, uprooted trees, brought down electricity poles, knocking out power to a record 4.3 million households, while leaving eight dead and four missing. (Photo by Benjamin Yeh/AFP Photo)

People carry drinks at 80s Bar in Damascus, Syria, March 11, 2016. In Damascus's Old City, just a mile from the battered frontline between government and rebel-held territory, young Syrians smoke, drink beer or soft drinks, and talk about anything but the war. The revival of activity in this once-vibrant quarter is part of efforts to project an air of normality in the Syrian capital, even as the five-year-old war that has killed more than 250,000 people and created 5 million refugees continues to rage nearby. (Photo by Omar Sanadiki/Reuters)

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.