A boy sells balloons in front of a closed market as the government reduces market business hours after new cases of COVID-19 were reported across the country in Peshawar, Pakistan, 03 August 2021. Countries around the world are taking increased measures to stem the widespread of the COVID-19 disease. (Photo by Arshad Arbab/EPA/EFE)

A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on August 18, 2021. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

Members of the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps do their thing down San Francisco's Market Street, June 27, 1982. Police estimate the crowd to be 300,000 for the Lesbian/Gay Freedom Day parade and rally. (Photo by Carl Viti/AP Photo)

A woman takes photographs of falling snow from a window during a heavy snowfall, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Seoul, South Korea, January 12, 2021. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Yakut artists present a performance based on the national Yakut epic “Olonkho” on the stage of the Kyrgyz Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 24 April 2024. The State Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is on tour in Bishkek on April 24 and 26. (Photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA/EFE)

Students from the Liceo Parini school celebrate the end of term in Milan, Italy on June 6, 2024. (Photo by Marco Ottico/LaPresse/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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.

Playboy Bunnies pose for a selfie at the premiere of “The Transporter Refueled” at Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California August 25, 2015. The movie opens in the U.S. on September 4. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)