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.

Guinness World Records declared Afshin Ghaderzadeh 20 years old as world’s shortest man with the height of 65.24 cm in Dubai on December 15, 2022. The Iranian citizen takes the title from previous record-holder Edward Hernandez, from Colombia, who stands at 72cm tall. (Photo by Pawan Singh/The National)

Women demonstrate on International Women's Day as they strike to demand the end to domestic violence and the country's prevailing “macho” culture, in Milan, Italy on March 8, 2023. (Photo by Claudia Greco/Reuters)

A winter swimmer, wearing a Santa Claus hat to celebrate the upcoming Christmas, reacts as he plays on a frozen lake at a park in Shenyang, Liaoning province, December 22, 2014. The characters on the hat read: “Shenyang Winter Swimming”. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A jockey takes part in a traditional cattle race or “Pacu Jawi”, to mark the end of the rice harvest in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia, August 13, 2016 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. (Photo by Hafiz Mubarak A./Reuters/Antara Foto)

A Thai visitor appears to be frightened by a life-size Velociraptor model also known as Raptor at the Dinosaur Planet theme park in Bangkok, Thailand, 25 March 2016. The 500 million baht (14 million US dollars or 12 million euro) theme park opening in the Thai capital aimed to attract more than 15,000 visitors a day featuring a chance to experience more than 200 dinosaurs from various species that are brought back to life. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA)

A staff member sets up a ROBOTLEO robot at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2017 in Beijing, China April 28, 2017. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)