A Palestinian man carries a lion cub as he shows it to children in Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on December 4, 2019. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

A cast member from The Lion King goes to take up her position for the performance during The Olivier Awards 2019 with Mastercard at the Royal Albert Hall on April 07, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by David Levene/The Guardian)

American actress Kiernan Shipka takes a mirror selfie in the last decade of February 2022. (Photo by kiernanshipka/Instagram)

Devotees gather to take part in the celebrations to mark the Krishna Janmashtami festival at a temple in Jalandhar on August 26, 2024. (Photo by Shammi Mehra/AFP 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 performer wearing a lion mask performs the Ise Daikagura lion dance at the remote village of Yamanawa on February 08, 2021 in Ryuo, Japan. Ise Daikagura is a group of traditional Lion Dance performers who pray in front of farmers houses and businesses for good grain harvests and disease-free lives. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

Detroit Lions cheerleaders perform a routine with the Grinch during a timeout in the action in the second quarter of the Detroit Lions against the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan on December 5, 2024. (Photo by Lon Horwedel/USA Today Sports)

Pakistani female police commandos attend a training session in Nowshera, near Peshawar Pakistan, Wednesday, February 11, 2015. Authorities formed a Special Combat Unit after Taliban militants stormed a Peshawar school on Dec. 16, 2014 and massacred 150 children and teachers. (Photo by Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo)