An aerial view taken on March 8, 2021, shows Chinese fishing vessel Lurong Yuan Yu that ran aground on reefs of Pointe-aux-Sables in Port Louis, Mauritius, on March 7, 2021. (Photo by L'Express Maurice/AFP Photo)

A boat transports Pirarucu fish to a processing ship, in the San Raimundo settlement lake, in Carauari, Brazil, Tuesday, September 6, 2022, published November 3. The giant fish not so long ago nearly vanished. The illegal and unsustainable fishing left river and Indigenous communities struggling to catch their staple food. (Photo by Jorge Saenz/AP Photo)

A view of the Milky Way over the windmills at the wasteland of La Lora, in Rocamundo, region of Cantabria, northern Spain, 29 May 2022. (Photo by Pedro Puente Hoyos/EPA/EFE)

People jump into a swimming pool seeking relief from the summer heat, in Sanaa, Yemen on August 7, 2025. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

A red deer looks as though it is yawning while it bellows at sunrise. The stag created a cloud of steamy breath as it was warmed by the first light of the sun in Richmond Park, London on October 28, 2025. (Photo by Cristian Vasile/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus takes a selfie with fans after winning against Madison Keys of the United States during their women's singles match of the China Open tennis tournament, at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Wednesday, October 2, 2024. (Photo by Achmad Ibrahim/AP 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.

A villager carries wood while a blackbuck runs on a field near Bhetnoi village in Ganjam District, in the Indian eastearn state of Odisha on May 20, 2018. Villagers of Ganjam district due to their traditional religious belief consider blackbucks as incarnations of Lord Vishnu and harbingers of rain. (Photo by Asit Kumar/AFP Photo)