Festival goers kiss in the “Silent Disco” at the “Music in the Park” stage during the 50th Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, July 9, 2016. (Photo by Anthony Anex/EPA)

Nina Betschart of Team Switzerland dives against Germany during the Women's Preliminary - Pool F on day one of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Shiokaze Park on July 24, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Mel Winnie Harlow poses for photographers before the presentation of Christian Dior's Spring-Summer 2018 ready-to-wear fashion collection in Paris, Tuesday, September 26, 2017. (Photo by Michel Euler/AP Photo)

A member of the “Avocadoo” club performs a pole dance on a street sign pole in Lodz, central Poland on June 27, 2013. Talk about a traffic stopper: three pole dancers in central Poland have been honing their skills out in the streets, throwing their legs around signposts to the surprise and delight of many a passerby. (Photo by Janek Skarzynski/AFP Photo)

The Flying Bull's P-38 Lockheed Lightning N25Y / 13 – Red Bull – Flying Legends Airshow 2012 Duxford (Photo by Rob Lovesey)

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.

Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji plays at his enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, Thursday, September 28, 2023. (Photo by Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)