A toddler dressed as Hindu Lord Krishna takes part in Krishna Janmashtami celebrations at a temple in Kolkata, India, on August 23, 2019. Krishna Janmashtami is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. (Photo by Tumpa Mondal/Xinhua News Agency)

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.

People wash in water from a broken water pipeline on the outskirts of Kolkata, India, March 30, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Festival goers splash through a muddy puddle at Worthy Farm in Somerset, on the third day of the Glastonbury music festival June 27, 2014. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

A goose walks on the road as Belarusian villagers take part in the Yurya religious rite to bring a good harvest in the village of Lutki, some 270 km south of Minsk, on May 6, 2019. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/AFP Photo)

Antonina, 9, looks through a shrapnel-broken window after an online lesson on the first school day at her home in the village of Pokrovske, on September 1, 2022, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Pokrovske, a tiny village of 24 people in the Mykolayev region of southern Ukraine, nine-year-old Antonina Sidorenko started school to the steady sound of cannons in this town near the front line. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

England fans show their support during the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 Quarter Final match between England and Colombia at Stadium Australia on August 12, 2023 in Sydney / Gadigal, Australia. (Photo by Alex Pantling – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

A child with his body and face painted prepares to attend the sacred Ngerebeg ritual at the Tegallalang village in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia, 03 April 2024. The sacred Ngerebeg ritual takes place every six months and it is mainly aimed at driving all evil spirits out of the villages. During the ritual, the participants paint their bodies in various colors and patterns to join the procession across the village. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA/EFE)