A mural on an apartment block created as part of the Urban Morphogenesis street art festival in the Novaya Tryokhgorka residential neighbourhood in the town of Odintsovo in Moscow Region, Russia on August 31, 2019. (Photo by Valery Sharifulin/TASS)

A man cries over the body of his girlfriend, who was killed by shelling in the Kalininsky district of Donetsk, territory under control of the pro-Russian Government of the Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, Thursday, June 9, 2022, during the Russian invasion. (Photo by Alexei Alexandrov/AP Photo)

British rock band Bring Me The Horizon performs at the Reading Music Festival, England, Friday, August 27, 2022. (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/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.

Sri Lankan military personnel march during the country's 66th Independence Day celebrations in the central town of Kegalle, about 40 kms from the capital Colombo on February 4, 2014. Sri Lanka cemmemorates its independence from British rule on February 4, 1948. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Honda MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa (R) of Spain sprays champagne on an attendant next to Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi (C) of Italy after winning the Japanese Grand Prix at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Motegi, north of Tokyo, Japan, October 11, 2015. Rossi placed second. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

People eat sushi off the body of a model at an opening event of a bar in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, August 22, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)