Actors Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner are seen getting into character while on set filming scenes for their new movie “One Night Only” tonight in New York City on November 12, 2025. (Photo by Jose Perez/Backgrid USA)

Fashion model Irina Shayk prepares backstage at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2025 on October 15, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

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.

Actress Victoria Justice arrives at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on August 28, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

An alpaca chewing a leaf is pictured on November 18, 2014 in the zoo of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/AFP Photo/DPA)

Buddy the dog peers from a vehicle before the start of a movie at a drive in cinema in Snagov, Romania, Monday, June 1, 2020. Romania further loosened the measures imposed during a nationwide lockdown in order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 infections, with museums, open air restaurants, cinemas and beaches opening for public on Monday. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

A tourist walks inside the Ice Palace glacier hollow at Hintertux glacier, located at around 3250 meters above sea level, in Zillertal, Austria, 02 March, 2016. The hollow's temperature remains constant at 0 degrees Celsius, in summer and winter alike, and is also used by the University of Innsbruck for scientific research projects. (Photo by Lisi Niesner/EPA)

M42 Subtle V1 cropped. One of the most well-known astronomical objects in our universe is the Orion Nebula and this image depicts the wider region of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex that is its home. This complex also includes another popular target for astrophotographers, the Horsehead Nebula, as well as Barnard’s Loop and the Running Man Nebula, which can be seen to the left of this photograph. (Photo by Patrick Gilliland)