Locals look on as high winds from Storm Bert cause waves to crash over the harbour arm in Folkestone, Britain, on November 24, 2024. (Photo by Chris J. Ratcliffe/Reuters)

Singer/Songwriter Chris Janson (center black shirt) with fans during Country Thunder USA – Day 3 on April 11, 2015 in Florence, Arizona. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Country Thunder USA)

English-Albanian singer and songwriter Dua Lipa arrives at the premiere of “Barbie” on Sunday, July 9, 2023, at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

American media personality and socialite Kim Kardashian poses at GQ's Men of the Year Party at Bar Marmont, Thursday, November 16, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

Trees are reflected on the surface of a lake in the Okefenokee swamp lands in Georgia, USA on October 21, 2017. (Photo by Chris Moore/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A werewolf sculpture looms over an “Altadena – Not For Sale!” sign on a property destroyed by the Eaton Fire, Monday, February 17, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/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.

Actors perform a scene in a film directed by Humam Husari in the rebel-held besieged town of Zamalka, in the Damascus suburbs, Syria September 19, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)