The galactic core of the Milky Way glows brightly in the clear night sky above St Catherine?s Chapel at Abbotsbury in Dorset, UK on August 2, 2024. (Photo by Graham Hunt/Alamy Live News)

Early morning swimmers at Cullercoats Bay on the north east coast of England on Sunday, December 29, 2024. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)

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.

“Zeybeks”. That's Dance, Sunward and Zeybeks. (Photo by Hasan Baglar/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

A female member of Romania's military adjusts her hat before taking part in the national day military parade in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, December 1, 2017. Thousands of Romanian troops staged a military parade to celebrate Romania's national day, but key politicians didn't attend, signaling tensions between the president and the ruling left-wing coalition over plans to revamp the justice system. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

South Korean rescue members wearing chemical protective suits walk past a monster character (R) during an anti-terror drill as part of a disaster management exercise at the COEX shopping and exhibition center in Seoul on May 20, 2016. South Korea is holding its 2016 Safe Korea anti-disaster exercise this week against terrorist threats and natural disasters. (Photo by Jung Yeon-Je/AFP Photo)

A man lays in front of a tank in the entrance to Istanbul's Ataturk airport, early Saturday, July 16, 2016. Members of Turkey's armed forces said they had taken control of the country, but Turkish officials said the coup attempt had been repelled early Saturday morning in a night of violence, according to state-run media. (Photo by Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP Photo)

People take pictures of huge waves crash on the Viavelez seafront in the northern Spanish region of Asturias January 2, 2016. (Photo by Eloy Alonso/Reuters)