Class of 2027 plebes climb during the Herndon Monument Climb at the U.S. Naval Academy, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Annapolis, Md. Freshmen, known as Plebes, participate in the climb to celebrate finishing their first year at the academy. The climb was completed in two hours, nineteen minsters and eleven seconds to complete. (Photo by Tom Brenner/AP Photo)

Thor Teigen poses in a fur jacket next to a thermometer displaying a temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit / 55 degrees Celsius at the Furnace Creek Visitors Center, in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Sunday, July 7, 2024. Forecasters said a heat wave could break previous records across the U.S., including at Death Valley. (Photo by Ty ONeil/AP Photo)

Beach volleyball athletes from Lithuania and Spain train in Paris on July 25, 2024. (Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters)

Aerial view of people circling around bonfires to celebrate the Torch Festival on Axilixi Prairie on July 20, 2024 in Bijie, Guizhou Province of China. (Photo by Luo Dafu/VCG via Getty Images)

A white crab spider hides between the petals of a rain spotted rose blossom in the garden of a home near Oakland in southwestern Oregon on August 23, 2024. Crab spiders are ambush predators and wait patiently for their prey to approach. (Photo by Robin Loznak/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Art graduate Katie Mills with her one of her “Kheeky” face flesh bottles that forms part of her “Bottoms Up” illustration design work during the media preview of the Edinburgh College of Art graduate show in Edinburgh on Friday, August 16, 2024. The exhibition features the work of more than 350 postgraduate students, and is part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, the UK's largest annual celebration of visual art. (Photo by Jane Barlow/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.

Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) soldiers and firefighters make rescue works among mountain lodges, covered with volcanic ash near the peak of Mt. Ontake, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures in this September 28, 2014 photo taken and released by Kyodo. More than 30 people were feared dead on Sunday near the peak of the Japanese volcano that erupted a day earlier, sending a huge cloud of ash and rock tumbling down its slopes, while packed with hikers. (Photo by Reuters/Kyodo News)