Ambra Sabatini (ITA) and Monica Graziana Contrafatto (ITA) fall at the finish line ahead of Elena Kratter (SUI) and Noelle Lambert (USA) in the Para Athletics Women’s 100m -T63 Final during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Summer Games at Stade de France, on September 7, 2024. (Photo by Adrian Dennis/OIS via Imagn 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.

Models display creations by fashion house Andres Sarda during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Madrid, Spain, April 8, 2021. (Photo by Sergio Perez/Reuters)

Yuri Gagarin does not always show up in full-scale astronautics. In this picture he smiles during his summer vacation in Sochi, Russia in 1961 with sunglasses and sunhat in the camera. (Photo by Imago/Eastnews)

Girls of University of Cincinnati Stage Grecian Games on April 29, 1921. Garbed in costumes of ancient Greece, fair students of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio arranged a set of Grecian Games for the benefit of the University athletic fund. All of the girl students of the University, who take a great interest in outdoor games and athletics, took part in the games. The fund was greatly increased through the staging of the unique attraction and the girls purpose to give a return engagement. The accompanying photographs show the girl contestants in their Grecian costumes. Photo shows the start of the 100 yard dash. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

An Indonesian man displays his collection of rings with various gemstones at an exhibition and competition of the best gemstone at a mall in Jakarta on August 6, 2015. The recent fad of collecting rings with precious gemstone or polished gemstone locally called “batu akik” is sweeping across Indonesia, with collectors going for the very rare stones and it's possession many believe will give the owner supernatural power. (Photo by Bay Ismoyo/AFP Photo)

A pair of heels are left on a chair as a place holder at the 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles, California January 30, 2016. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Actress and model Charlotte McKinney attends the grand opening of NightSwim at Encore Beach Club at Wynn Las Vegas on May 5, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for Wynn Las Vegas)