Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain serves to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their Men's Singles match at the 2023 US Open Tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on August 30, 2023. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, right, and Coco Gauff of United States dance during a practice session ahead of the Wimbledon Championships in London, Friday, June 27, 2025. (Photo by Kin Cheung/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 person poses on the track during a fashion competition at the Durban July horse racing event in Durban, South Africa, July 2, 2016. (Photo by Rogan Ward/Reuters)

French actress Frederique Bel arrives for the NRJ Music Awards ceremony at the Festival Palace in Cannes December 13, 2014. (Photo by Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

Smoke billows from a high-rise apartment building in west London Wednesday, June 14, 2017. A massive fire raced through the building early Wednesday, emergency officials said. (Photo by Rick Findler/PA Wire via AP Photo)

Iranian chess player Sara Khadem competes, without wearing a hijab, in FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan December 26, 2022, in this picture obtained by Reuters on December 27, 2022. (Photo by Lennart Ootes/FIDE/via Reuters)

People have fun on an alley through Christmas lights in downtown Chisinau, Moldova, 23 December 2021. Traditionally, people from former countries of the Soviet Union, still celebrate Christmas on two occasions, on 25 December and 07 January. (Photo by Dumitru Doru/EPA/EFE)