A cheerleader for the Virginia Cavaliers men’s basketball team on court during a timeout against the Texas A&M Aggies at John Paul Jones Arena in Virginia, US on November 29, 2023. (Photo by Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports)

Goats covered with cloth are tied next to a hut on a cold winter morning in New Delhi on December 26, 2023. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

People shop at a market ahead of the Lunar New Year in Hong Kong on February 6, 2024 ahead of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon which falls on February 10. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

British sculptor Laurence Edwards' striking bronze figures, Walking Men, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, UK on April 9, 2024. The 8ft tall figures are seen to be anti-heroic and seem to have come from the earth itself. Branches, leaves and clods of clay are woven through them, making it unclear where human and ground begin and end. (Photo by Pete Seaward/South West News Service)

A woman holding a dog walks out of a plane during a press event introducing Bark Air, an airline for dogs, at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, New York on May 21, 2024. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Revelers run through the festival grounds to see the next show at the Governors Ball music festival at Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., June 9, 2024. (Photo by Cheney Orr/Reuters)

Tourists are watching the sunrise from a viewing platform on the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, China, on June 23, 2024. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto/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.