Sara Sorribes Tormo of Team Spain plays a back hand in the Women's singles match against Beatriz Haddad Maia of Team Brazil during day one of the 2024 United Cup at RAC Arena on December 29, 2023 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)

France's Alexia Richard looks up after falling in. loss to Spain in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Paris, France. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

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 bride gets her make-up done before the start of a mass marriage ceremony in Kolkata, India, February 14, 2016. A total of 150 tribal Hindu, Muslim and Christian couples from various villages across the state took their wedding vows on Sunday during the day-long mass marriage ceremony organised by a social organisation, the organisers said. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A competitor shows her tattoos at the MBK Tattoo Contest in a shopping mall in Bangkok October 23, 2014. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Netapp Endura team rider Slovenian Blaz Jarc (R) crashes into Katusha team rider Russian Viacheslav Kuznetsov (ground) during the 112th Paris Roubaix cycling race, in Roubaix, France, 13 April 2014. (Photo by Nicolas Bouvy/EPA)

Gigi Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski celebrated the opening of the shopping centre by taking part in the evening's ribbon cutting ceremony in Mykonos, Greece on June 30, 2018. (Photo by Richard Young/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

This picture taken on February 16, 2017 in Fangshan village in China's coastal province Fujians, shows a villager performing the “eating flowers” ritual. Villagers in eastern China have a unique way of washing away the taint of evil spirits – by bathing in a shower of scorching sparks. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)