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)

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.

The anthropomorphic robot named hitchBOT sits on the shoulder of Highway 102 to begin its 6000 kilometer cross country journey outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 27, 2014. The hitch hiking robot is part of a social experiment to see if drivers will pick up and drop off the robot in one piece to an art gallery in Victoria, British Columbia. (Photo by Paul Darrow/Reuters)

Students dance in the hallway during a break at Moscow State Academy of Choreography in Moscow, Russia 03 March 2016. Moscow State Academy of Choreography is the oldest institution in Moscow which teaches Ballet arts not only Russian citizens, but also representatives from more than 20 countries. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA)

Skiers and snowboarders in swimwear during the Grelka Fest-2019 Festival at the Sheregesh ski resort, Kemerovo Region, Russia on April 13, 2019. (Photo by Kirill Kukhmar/TASS)

New Orleans police officers try to keep their heads down as they move in on a Black Panther headquarters during an exchange of gunfire in New Orleans on September 15, 1970. The shootout occurred as police moved in to make arrests on Tuesday morning following a series of incidents. (Photo by Jack Thornell/AP Photo)

A fisherwoman repairs the fishing nets at a fishing port during the annual summer fishing ban, which covers the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the waters north of 12 degrees north latitude in the South China Sea, on June 8, 2022 in Wenling, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Liu Zhenqing/VCG via Getty Images)