Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt (90) is introduced before an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Pittsburgh, Sunday, November 14, 2021. (Photo by Don Wright/AP Photo)

Aerialist Erin Blaire, 33, performs a hair hanging trick for a photographer while hanging from a metal bar on a subway platform on March 14, 2023 in New York City. Erin Blaire, originally from Vermont, has lived in New York City for eight years and has been performing her aerial hair routine for the last three. The origin of hair hanging is believed to have originated in China, according to reports, and is a closely guarded circus trick passed from mentor to mentee. Although it is possible to find the technique and secrets online it is most-likely not how professional performers learned the skillset, and not how Blaire did either. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

A girl feeds the new-born kitten as the family, living in tent city, adopted two kittens, found under the rubble, after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit in Hatay, Turkiye on March 15, 2023. (Photo by Sergen Sezgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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.

Puryanti, a 29-year-old woman, and her 15-year-old nephew Raffi, cover themselves from head to toe in silver paint to become “manusia silver” (silver people), as part of their act to make a living, in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, February 6, 2021. (Photo by Adi Kurniawan/Reuters)

A devotee of Hindu goddess Kali performs a ritual during the “Bonalu” festival in Hyderabad, India, Sunday, July 28, 2019. Bonalu is a month-long Hindu folk festival of the Telangana region dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

Seen in a long camera exposure, the Caldor Fire burns on Sunday, August 29, 2021, in Eldorado National Forest, Calif. (Photo by Noah Berger/AP Photo)

A drone photo shows an aerial view of a part of Augusta Ancient City, belonging to the Roman period, revealed following the withdrawal of water level of Seyhan Dam Lake, in Adana, Turkey on September 07, 2021. (Photo by Eren Bozkurt/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)