The rising sun illuminates the sky above the spires of a church in Vienna, Austria, November 17, 2015. (Photo by Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters)

Race winner USA's Mikaela Shiffrin reacts as she is symbolically crowned on the podium after competing in the Women's Giant Slalom on January 24, 2023 in Plan de Corones (Kronplatz), Dolomites Mountains, as part of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. (Photo by Marco Bertorello/AFP Photo)

Soldiers and firefighters carry the body of Chilean President Salvador Allende, wrapped in a Bolivian poncho, out of La Moneda presidential palace after it was bombed during a coup by Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Santiago, Chile, September 11, 1973. (Phoot by El Mercurio/AP Photo)

A tourist's umbrella blows upside down as she covers from the heavy rain and high winds, while she tours the city centre, as storm Konrad hits Spain, Portugal and France, in Ronda, Spain, on March 13, 2025. (Photo by Jon Nazca/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.

Dozens of people participate in the religious pilgrimage to the National Shrine of El Rincon, in the municipality of Boyeros, in Havana, Cuba, 17 December 2018. As is customary every year, thousands of people in mass attend the shrine to pay tribute to Saint Lazarus, to whom the faithful come for personal requests and miracles. (Photo by Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA/EFE)

A brown bear waits for food at the zoo in Madrid, Spain on July 30, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Sanz/Pacific Press/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Hindu devotee drinks water from the Ganges River at the Sangam area, the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati, in Allahabad on March 16, 2021. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)