Demonstrators run inside of subway after clashing with riot police during a protest to denounce the housing crisis and evictions, in Barcelona, Spain, on September 25, 2024. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

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 visits an ocean park during the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, 2024 in Handan, Hebei Province of China. May 22 marks the 24th International Day for Biological Diversity. (Photo by Hao Qunying/VCG via Getty Images)

Young gymnasts practice pull-up on a bar at a gymnasium of a sports school in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province April 11, 2015. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

Face Off is an American reality television game show on the Syfy cable network in which a group of prosthetic makeup artists compete against each other to create prostheses such as those found in science fiction and horror films.

In this Friday, May 10, 2019, file photo, rescuers help a baby wild elephant cross the wetland to return to the forest at Deepor Beel wildlife sanctuary in Gauhati, India. The elephant had gotten stuck in the waters of Deepor Beel after it was separated from a herd of wild elephant that came down in search of food last night. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

This file photo provided on Sunday February 15, 2015 by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels firing locally made shells against the Syrian government forces, in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo by AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center)

A woman uses protection masks to cover her face as protestors from the Million Mask March and anti lockdown protesters demonstrate, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in London, Britain on November 5, 2020. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)