A dolphin swims alongside ships and fishing boats at the Bosphorus in Arnavutkoy district of Istanbul, Turkiye on May 21, 2023. (Photo by Isa Terli/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A child dressed as Hindu God Shiva begs for alms from devotees at the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers – the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, on the Makar Sankranti festival during the annual traditional fair of Magh Mela in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Sunday, January 14, 2024. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take dips in the confluence, hoping to wash away sins during the month-long festival. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

(L-R) Sofía Vergara and Heidi Klum attend Netflix's Primetime Emmy afterparty at Hilex on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Roger Kisby/Getty Images for Netflix)

Mayoral hopeful Paperboy Prince is escorted by members of the New York Police Department after storming the stage during a Democratic mayoral forum at Medgar Evers College in New York City, on April 23, 2025. (Photo by David 'Dee' Delgado/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 picture made available on 07 March 2016 shows visitors petting and holding a Fennec fox, native to the Sahara, in the petting room at the Little Zoo Cafe, a business built to capitalize on Thais' love for exotic animals, and food, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, 05 March 2016. The cafe boasts Fennec foxes, Meerkat, native to parts of Africa, Silver Fox, Raccoon and Chinchillas, along with a menu of Thai food and Cheesecake, among other sweet deserts. Nature is a faraway fantasy in the bustling exhaust-filled cement city of Bangkok, fuelling a demand to own and be close to exotic pets. The trend to be near to a species that was once wild, in a city environment, far from the natural setting, has drawn criticism but continues to grow. (Photo by Barbara Walton/EPA)

Shanghai Ballet dancers wearing masks practise in a dance studio in Shanghai, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, February 20, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Police and the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) servicemen patrol Red Square in front of the Spasskaya tower of the Kremlin in Moscow on October 24, 2022, as part of security reinforcement measures. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)