Children are engulfed by foam during the Bubble Show event in Beijing, China, Sunday, June 26, 2016. Thousands of residents enjoy colored foam churned out by machines along a running track at the event designed for children and parents' interaction. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/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.

American singer-songwriter, producer and former dancer Anastacia and teacher dancer Maykel Fonts perform during the “Dancing with the Stars” TV show in Rome, Italy on March 24, 2018. (Photo by PA Press Association)

This photo taken on March 29, 2017 shows a young woman offering shots of liquer at a dance bar in Walking Street in Pattaya. Two hours east of Bangkok, Pattaya' s bawdy reputation hails from the Vietnam War era when US GIs partied in their downtime. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP Photo)

Students protest in red underwear on the Plein in The Hague, The Netherlands, 02 June 2021. The action is part of the #NietMijnSchuld campaign by Dutch union FNV Young & United and the National Student Union LSVb, which are campaigning for a debt-free basic grant. (Photo by Bart Maat/EPA/EFE)

A starling jealously guards a seed station in the back garden of the photographer’s Michigan home in January 2024. (Photo by Lisa Cavanary/Solent News)

A woman participates in the “Carnaval na Central” block party in Rio. (Photo by Felipe Dana/Associated Press)

“Over three years I photographed fans outside different concerts. I was fascinated by the different tribes of people that attended them, and how people emulated celebrity to form their identity. As I photographed the project I began to see how the concerts became events for people to come together with surrogate “families”, a chance to relive their youth or try and be part of a scene that happened before they were born” – James Mollison.

Photo: Madonna fans. (Photo by James Mollison)