North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his wife Ri Sol Ju and Song Tao, head of the International Department of Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, applaud with ballet dancers in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang April 17, 2018. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)

Pakistani children cool themselves off in a stream in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, June 29, 2015, during Muslim's fasting month of Ramadan. (Photo by Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

Revellers watch as police officers dance in the street at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London, August 30, 2015. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

Members of the public enjoy the sunny weather along the Brighton beach in East Sussex, United Kingdom on July 17, 2022. (Photo by Marcin Nowak/London News Pictures)

A person dressed as a zombie walks during the annual Zombie Walk in Mexico City, Mexico on October 21, 2023. (Photo by Quetzalli Nicte-Ha/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 man carrying butchered dogs drives past a pet dog at a dog meat market in Yulin, Guangxi Autonomous Region, June 21, 2015. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A woman jumps with balloons while she poses for a picture at a park in Kiev, Ukraine May 6, 2018. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)