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)

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.

American actress and singer Victoria Justice thanks Alabama for “the good times” early May 2022. (Photo by victoriajustice/Instagram)

Model Bella Hadid is seen on June 9, 2017 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/GC Images)

American actress and model Bella Thorne in the last decade of September 2022 wears a barely-there dress joking she “didn't have a bikini”. (Photo by bellathorne/Instagram)

A youth in costume hurries past a mural after dancing at the Sun Festival in Cotacachi, Ecuador, Sunday, June 24, 2018. Across the Andes, from the tip of Argentina as far north as Colombia, indigenous communities are gathering for the southern hemisphere's winter solstice to honor the ancient sun god. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

An iguana in Bali helped Julij Kopilović, age eight, from Slovenia, earn second runner-up in Amazing Animals. (Photo by Julij Kopilović/National Geographic)

The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is seen in the sky over Muonio in Lapland, Finland on January 18, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Kuznetsov/Reuters)