Lourdes Leon dares to bare just like her superstar mother Madonna as she stars in a new Dion Lee campaign on August 2, 2023. Stunning Lourdes, also known as Lola, poses in nothing but boots and handbags for the fashion brand's new Cage Chain collection. (Photo by Carlota Guerrero/Dion Lee/The Mega Agency)

A red deer stag in Bushy Park, southwest London, pulls a comical face for the camera in the second decade of November 2023. (Photo by Andrew Wood/Caters News Agency)

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 explosion at a petrochemical plant is seen in Rizhao, Shandong province, July 16, 2015. According to Xinhua News Agency, a fire broke out after the explosion, which was caused by a liquified hydrocarbon leak at the plant, on Thursday morning. There was no report of casualties yet. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Three female friends dancing in nightclub. (Photo by Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy Stock Photo )

A member of the Eton public school O.T.C. (Officers Training Corps) practising shouting out orders during a training session, 20th January 1940. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Two woman lie in a puddle of squashed tomatoes during the annual “Tomatina” tomato fight fiesta, in the village of Bunol, 50 kilometers outside Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, August 26, 2015. The streets of an eastern Spanish town are awash with red pulp as thousands of people pelt each other with tomatoes in the annual "Tomatina" battle that has become a major tourist attraction. At the annual fiesta in Bunol on Wednesday, trucks dumped 150 tons of ripe tomatoes for some 22,000 participants, many from abroad to throw during the hour-long morning festivities. (Photo by Alberto Saiz/AP Photo)

Photographer holding digital camera during photoshoot of fashion model. (Photo by grinvalds/Getty Images)