A pitch invader tries to get through to Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal during the UEFA Nations League 2024/25 League A Group A1 match between Portugal and Scotland at Estadio do SL Benfica on September 8, 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Pedro Nunes/Reuters)

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.

Artist Kong Ning wears a wedding dress made from respirators to highlight concerns about air quality and pollution in Beijing, China on December 1, 2015. (Photo by Luo Xiaoguang/Xinhua Press/Corbis)

“Kids of Sapa”. Four little beautiful Hmong girls from Lao Chai Village, near Sapa, Vietnam. (Photo and caption by Felipe Hanower/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

A man carries floats as he walks on an algae covered beach as a truck collecting algae passes by, along the coastline in Qingdao, Shandong province, July 6, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Muslim children play sack race during Eid-al-Fitr celebration in Taguig city, south of Manila July 18, 2015. (Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

Andrea Ramirez of Colombia, left, and Virginia Dellan of Venezuela, right, compete during their women's - 49kg Taekwondo final match of the Bolivarian Games in Valledupar, Colombia, Sunday, July 3, 2022. Ramirez won the gold medal. (Photo by Fernando Vergara/AP Photo)

Derby's Byron MacLean, left, edges out Hall's Joe Nham in the boys 55-meter hurdles at the CIAC State Open indoor track championships at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven, Saturday, February 17, 2024. Lyman Hall's Owen Rich, right, falls after taking down the final hurdle. (Photo by Cloe Poisson/Hartford Courant via AP Photo)