A participant rides a bicycle carrying an orangutan mascot costume as he attends an awareness action calling for the protection of orangutans, organised by local environmental NGO Satya Bumi to mark World Orangutan Day, observed on August 19, during Car Free Day in Jakarta on August 24, 2025. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

Dancers perform during the annual Tartan Day Parade along Sixth Avenue on April 15, 2023 in New York City. Celebrating its 25th Anniversary, the New York City Tartan Day Parade featured many Scottish clans, Pipers, Dancers and Scottish dogs. (Photo by Andrew Schwartz/SIPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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 P-51 Mustang named “Charlotte's Chariot” from the Southern Heritage Air Foundation flies past a cloud of smoke and fire from a nearby battle reenactment during the Wings Over Houston Airshow in Houston, on Saturday, November 1, 2014. Battle reenactments are part of the yearly show held at Ellington Airport. (Photo by Kar Hlava/AP Photo/Bay Area Citizen)

A woman participates in a ritual for the African sea goddess Yemanja at Ramirez Beach in Montevideo, Uruguay, Tuesday, February 2, 2021. (Photo by Matilde Campodonico/AP Photo)

“Teenager Teenager”, an installation by the collaborative Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, at the exhibition “Crazy. Madness in contemporary art” in Rome on February 18, 2022. (Photo by Gloria Imbrogno/LiveMedia/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

“Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T. He was a diversely talented 20th-century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Romain de Tirtoff (Erte) – “Symphony In Black” (please click to enlarge).

Lindsey Stirling performs onstage at Salle Pleyel on December 19, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)