Spain's acting acting Minister of Labor and Sumar MP Yolanda Diaz (Front-C) takes her seat at the Lower House in Madrid as they attend the Constitutive Session of the Lower House for the 15th legislature in Madrid, Spain, 17 August 2023. The Upper and Lower chambers celebrate their Constitutive Session for the 15th legislature after the general elections that took place last 23 July 2023. (Photo by Juan Carlos Hidalgo/EPA)

A participant of the “Zombie Takeover of Coney Island” acts like a zombie as he walks along Surf Avenue in Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York, July 2, 2014. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

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.

A wildfire on the Scottish island in the first decade of April 2025. Fire services are calling on people to act responsibly after an “extreme” wildfire warning was issued for the whole of Scotland. (Photo by Police Scotland/PA Wire)

A man eats a meal under his tree house, which acts as a shelter from wild elephants, in Gwe Cho village, Shwe Taung Yan township Ayeyarwady division January 18, 2016. Wild elephants are driving villagers in a Myanmar township to seek refuge while the animals storm their rice paddies, in Ayeyarwady in the Delta region, West of Yangon. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Nacho Libre wrestlers perform during the Lucha Vavoom “Valentines Day” show at the Mayan Theatre, California, on February 12, 2020. Lucha Vavoom combines Mexican Nacho Libre wrestling with cabaret and burlesque acts to make a uniquely Los Angeles variety show. (Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP Photo)

Youths, who covered themselves from head to toe in silver paint to become “manusia silver” (silvermen), as part of their act to make a living, laugh as they ride on the back of a truck in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 31, 2021. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

Artist German Vinogradov acts in the performance of the burning of installation, devoted to Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, in the village of Nikola-Lenivets, Kaluga region, Russia, February 17, 2018. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)