Alpine driver Pierre Gasly of France slides off the track during a qualifying session at the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix auto race, Friday, November 21, 2025 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Nick Didlick/AP Photo)

Tommy Lindsey holds an enormous maple leaf that he found in Mount Vernon, Wash., October 28, 2013. Lindsey was walking with his family when he picked up the leaf that is more than two feet from stem to tip and more than 21 inches wide. (Photo by Frank Varga/The Skagit Valley Herald)

The Rockettes perform at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony in New York, US on November 30, 2021. (Photo by Ralph Bavaro/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank 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.

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

The Baby Nager dragon, from DreamWorks’ new “How to Train Your Dragon” Live Spectacular touring musical, shows off it’s colors outside of the New York Public Library. (Photo by Mark Von Holden)