Hot air balloons fly during the Irish hot air ballooning championships in Galway, Ireland September 26, 2016. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

An exterior view of Rauceby, an abandoned mental asylum in Lincolnshire, UK. These haunting photos show the collapsing remains of a derelict mental asylum. The pictures show the ruined former hospital building and chapel, now covered in dust and graffiti. Few signs remain that reveal the site as a former home of mentally ill adults and children. (Photo by Simon Robson/Caters News)

A group of stags charge across a frosty field in Bushy Park, London, leaping in near-perfect formation as the early morning mist hangs low in the second decade of December 2025. (Photo by Max Ellis/The Times)

A machine works on a Rio 2016 Olympic medal at the Casa da Moeda do Brasil (Brazilian Mint) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 28, 2016. The Casa da Moeda do Brasil is the Brazilian mint, owned by the Brazilian government and administratively subordinated to the Ministry of Finances. It was established in 1694. (Photo by Sergio Moraes/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 subway worker walks away after a train departed the station in central Pyongyang, North Korea May 7, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

People wait in line to pay their last respects to the late Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, Monday, November 28, 2016. Cuba's government has declared nine days of national mourning following Castro's death on Nov. 25. (Photo by Fernando Medina/AP Photo)

A displaced Pakistani girl collects recyclable goods from a garbage to earn living for her family in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, January 19, 2016. (Photo by B.K. Bangash/AP Photo)