Director Pawel Pawlikowski holds his Oscar for best foreign language film for “Ida”, with presenters Chiwetel Ejiofor (L) and Nicole Kidman during the 87th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 22, 2015. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Children dressed as Santa Clause play with a soccer ball as they celebrate at their school ahead of Christmas in Chennai on December 23, 2021. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP 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.

A tourist takes photographs of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France on July 3, 2022. (Photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club warm up before swimming at the beach at Coney Island in New York, December 15, 2013. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Reuters)

Youths kick a gay rights activist during a protest against a proposed new law termed by the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, as “against advocating the rejection of traditional family values” in central Moscow June 11, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Jedi Ambassador of The Chicago Jedi, Dan McCann, 56, standing in his window in Chicago, Illinois on May 3, 2020. Normally, Dan would be preparing for The Galactic Battle For Chi-Town, a yearly mock Lightsaber battle in Chicago, which this year is being done via selfies shared over Facebook due to Illinois and Chicago's Stay At Home order. (Photo by Chris Riha/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)