English fashion model Daisy Lowe seen at Christopher Kane at Tate Britain on Day 4 of London Fashion Week February 2017 on February 20, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by SAV/GC Images)

Police officers intervene as a man attempts to hang himself during a protest to oppose the sharing of river water with a neighboring state, in Bengaluru, India on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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.

Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren raises his trophy in celebration on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit on December 7, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Jayce Illman/Getty Images)

The Belgian photographer Anton Kusters spent two years photographing the Yakuza, Japan’s most notorious gang. He returned with some amazing images that he made into a book called “Odo Yakuza Tokyo”. (Odo means “the way of the cherry blossom” and is the credo of the Yakuza family he followed. Photo: An erotic danser picks up fake 2-dollar bills during a private dance with a Yakuza customer in a strip tease bar in Kabukicho, a bar which is controlled by the ODO family – 2010. (Photo and caption by Anton Kusters)

A dancer warms up along 34th Street while waiting to perform during a pre-taping of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in front of the flagship store in New York, Wednesday, November 25, 2020. (Photo by Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

A resident receives a dose of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a rural village on December 01, 2021 in Aringay, La Union province, Philippines. The Philippines is rushing to vaccinate its population as it mulls making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory and amid the looming threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The country, which has just approved booster shots for its adult population, launched a three-day national vaccination holiday on November 29 to December 1 with the goal of vaccinating at least nine million additional people. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Comedian Chevy Chase gets a kiss on his ear from co-star Benji as the two held a press conference in Los Angeles, September 6, 1979, at which they announced their up-coming movie “Oh Heavenly Dog” would begin filming this month. The film will be shot on location in London, Berlin and Paris; but due to British quarantine laws a double will be used for Benji at the London location. (Photo by Nick Ut/AP Photo)