A winter swimmer jumps into a pool in the frozen Songhua River during an activity for welcoming the Chinese New Year on January 30, 2022 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province of China. (Photo by Liu Yang/VCG via Getty Images)

Members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard stand by at St. Peter's Square before Pope Francis delivers his traditional Christmas Day Urbi et Orbi speech to the city and the world from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, December 25, 2021. (Photo by Yara Nardi/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 glamour model Lacey Banghard attends a photocall for PETA to encourage pet owners to have their cats and dogs sterilised at Picadilly Circus on January 22, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Ben Pruchnie)

Waves crashing on the shore at sunrise at St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay in Tyne and Wear on the north east coast of England on Friday, October 22, 2021. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)

A woman sits on a terrace at Tiki hostel in Cantagalo favela, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 16, 2016. Hostels in a few of Rio's more than 1,000 slums serve not only as a cheap housing alternative for the more adventurous among the estimated 500,000 foreign tourists expected to arrive for the Olympics in August. The establishments also open up the rich culture of the city's shantytowns for travellers, giving them a glimpse into once “no-go” areas where about one-fifth of Rio's population lives. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

Street entertainer and fortune teller “Juana La Cubana” smiles holding a cigar in her mouth as she waits for tourists in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, May 24, 2015. Juana is 72 years old and has worked in the Cathedral square in Old Havana for 28 years. (Photo by Desmond Boylan/AP Photo)

Russian honor guard soldiers warm up prior a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, May 3, 2017. The parade will take place at Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square on May 9, to celebrate 72 years after the victory in WWII. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)