A female sniper of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) monitors the area during a celebration at the iconic Al- Naim square in Raqa on October 19, 2017, after retaking the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. The SDF fighters flushed jihadist holdouts from Raqa' s main hospital and municipal stadium, wrapping up a more than four- month offensive against what used to be the inner sanctum of IS' s self- proclaimed “caliphate”. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP Photo)

People dressed as Adam and Barbara Maitland from “Beetlejuice” ride the subway after leaving New York Comic Con 2022 on October 08, 2022 in New York City. The four-day event, which began Thursday morning at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, is expected to attract over 200,000 comic, fantasy and pop culture fans from across the country and world. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Girls in red neckerchiefs dance on Red Square, with the GUM, the State Department Store and the Historical Museum in the background, during a ceremony to celebrate joining the Pioneers organization and 100th anniversary of the All-Union Pioneer Organization, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 22, 2022. Pro-Communist Russians are trying to preserve the Young Pioneers, which used to be the Communist league for pre-teens in the Soviet Union. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

Russian model and television personality Irina Shayk teases her appearance in the Savage X Fenty show in the first decade of November 2022. (Photo by irinashayk/Instagram)

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.

An elephant calf, Tula-Tu plays with a pumpkin, as the Oregon Zoo celebrates Halloween during the 27th annual Squishing of the Squash, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., October 16, 2025. (Photo by Oregon Zoo/Handout via Reuters)

A model presents a creation from the Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2024 collection during Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, on February 24, 2024. (Photo by Claudia Greco/Reuters)

A leopard attacks an Indian man as others climb a wall to get away from the animal in Lamba Pind area in Jalandhar on January 31, 2019. After a leopard was spotted in a house in Lamba Pind area of Jalandhar city, subsequent attempts to capture it led to the animal attacking at least six people, though none was injured seriously, local media said. (Photo by Shammi Mehra/AFP Photo)