Cyclists compete during the UCI BMX World Championships Elite Women's Moto Race on May 29, 2016 in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. (Photo by Raul Arboleda/AFP Photo)

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.

Indian Air Force personnel parade during the 85th Air Force Day celebrations at Hindon Air Force base in Ghaziabad on October 8, 2017. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A Palestinian woman reacts after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest marking Land Day and the first anniversary of a surge of border protests, at the Israel-Gaza border fence, in the southern Gaza Strip on March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ashraf Abu Amrah/Reuters)

Carnival participants dressed in costume and wearing body paint pose for a group picture during the annual Zambo carnival held in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on March 14, 2021, marking the last period of excess on the eve of the Christian Greek Orthodox lent. The inspiration of the annual Zambo celebration is unclear, despite it being a tradition that stretches back over a century to when an emigrant to Brazil returned to his native Tripoli bringing the carnival with him. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

“Just hanging out”. As full autumn hits the valley of Hallingdal in Norway, this bear chills out in a tree which seems to barely cover its weight. Photo location: Flå, Hallingdal, Norway. (Photo and caption by Jorgen Tharaldsen/National Geographic Photo Contest)

In this October 7, 2014, photo, Fredrick Brower, center, helps cut up a bowhead whale caught by Inupiat subsistence hunters on a field near Barrow, Alaska. Drawing on tradition, and keeping within the closely monitored Aboriginal subsistence whaling guidelines, a bowhead whale is carved and divided by a crew armed with knives and hooks, and then shared according to custom. (Photo by Gregory Bull/AP Photo)

Toure, a Gambian salt harvester, holds a basket filled with the salt collected from the crust of the bottom of the Lake Retba (Pink Lake) in Senegal on March 16, 2021. Lake Retba, divided from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow corridor of dunes, owes its name to the pink waters caused by the Dunaliella salina algae and is known for its high salt content, up to 40% in some areas. (Photo by Marco Longari/AFP Photo)