Pedestrians use their smartphones to capture the newly illuminated Christmas tree at the Syntagma square in Athens on November 23, 2023. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP Photo)

Children in a Hong Kong refugee resettlement area watch as former Vice President Richard Nixon shows them his badminton service. Nixon visited Hong Kong, April 4, 1964, during his tour of countries in the Far East. (Photo by AP Photo)

Students from the University of St Andrews jump into The North Sea, as a good luck tradition before exams start on the East Sands in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland on May 1, 2018. (Photo by Derek Allan/Alamy Live News)

The UK reality star Charlotte Crosby leaving Lucky Voice karaoke club on March 28, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Barcroft Media)

A hungry pelican is shown in a high-speed aerial pursuit of a rival's fish dinner. Having caught the fish, the osprey had to fend off competition from the much bigger bird. These stunning pictures were captured by Hanping Xiao in Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida, USA in February 2023. (Photo by Hanping Xiao/Solent News & Photo Agency)

In this February 1, 2017 photo, environmental activist Maruja Inquilla poses for a photo next to a Municipal waste treatment plant with water that flows into Lake Titicaca, in Juliaca, in the Puno region of Peru. “If the frogs could talk they would say, This is killing me”," said Inquilla, who recently showed up at the Puno governor's house carrying plastic bags filled with hundreds of dead frogs in protest. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

An actor holds a fake baby while waiting for the Wintershall Nativity play dress rehearsal to begin at Wintersall Estate on December 12, 2021 in Guildford, England. The Nativity play, which tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, has been performed annually since 1990 over the Christmas period by the Wintershall players. (Photo by Hollie Adams/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.