A Muslim man carries holy incensed smoke through a pedestrian subway in Mumbai, India, May 13, 2016. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

Participants struggle to reach the prizes during a greased-pole climbing competition held as a part of the independence day celebrations in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, August 17, 2014. Indonesia is celebrating its 69th independence from the Dutch colonial rule. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/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.

A wheelbarrow loaded with two butchered pigs is seen at La Saline slaughterhouse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 19, 2015. Reuters photographer Andres Martinez Casares: “The grunts of a pig or the bleating of a goat are one thing. Then there's the sound of animals about to be killed. That's something else. If you haven't heard that before, it's quite something... (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

Nic Lamb rides a wave during the third heat of the first round of the Mavericks Invitational big wave surf contest Friday, January 24, 2014, in Half Moon Bay, Calif. (Photo by Eric Risberg/AP Photo)

“This Way Up”. Photographic section portfolio, first prize. A Chinook CH-47 weapon systems operator prepares his aircraft during a training exercise in June 2018. (Photo bu SAC Ed Wright/RAF)

Brazilian graffiti artist Eduardo Kobra (C) puts the final touches to his piece of art in tribute to Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, next to his assistants, at the financial center on Sao Paulo's Avenida Paulista January 22, 2013. Kobra created the 56-metre (61-yard) tall graffiti artwork as a tribute to Niemeyer, one of the 20th century's most influential modernist architects. Niemeyer died in December 2012, aged 104. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

American models Kendall Jenner, Lori Harvey, and Hailey Bieber have a girls' night out at Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica on June 13, 2023. (Photo by Backgrid USA)