People walk near to a motorcycle ride called “Caravan of Terror”, in Caracas, Venezuela on October 29, 2022. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez/Reuters)

Danish football fans react to their team's first goal as they watch the UEFA EURO 2020 semi-final football match between England and Denmark on the giant screen in Tivoli in Copenhagen, on July 7, 2021. (Photo by Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AFP Photo)

A boat lies on a beach of the Isola Capo Rizzuto marine reserve in Calabria, Italy on November 14, 2021, where many wrecks of vessels used by migrants are abandoned. (Photo by Alessandro Serrano/AGF/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the biggest production the Australian Ballet has ever undertaken and it’s also one of the most spectacular. Created for the Royal Ballet and designed by Bob Crowley, it involves puppetry, optical illusions, major setpieces and immersive projections, as well as costumes that some dancers have to actually climb into. Here: Ako Kondo as Alice, on stage September 11, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Jeff Busby/The Guardian)

A Russia-backed rebel looks at the flag covered body of an Ukrainian serviceman in Debaltseve, Ukraine, February 20, 2015. The struggle for the strategic rail hub, Debaltseve, a sleepy town with a pre-war population of 25,000 people, left the town in ruins and became one of the darkest pages in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has already killed more than 6,000 people. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo/File)

An elderly man uses a fan to shade himself from the sun as he walks in a public park in Beijing, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. Thursday marks the Duanwu Festival, a public holiday in China celebrated with outdoor activities including dragon boat races. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Actress Marney McQueen attends the 2025 ARIA Awards at Hordern Pavilion at Hordern Pavilion on November 19, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Hanna Lassen/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.