Members of the Loktev Ensemble perform during the opening of the 18th Moscow Meets Friends International Festival at the Moscow International House of Music in Moscow, Russia on May 18, 2021. (Photo by Artyom Geodakyan/TASS)

High-wire artist Kane Petersen successfully walks a tightrope 300 metres above the ground at Eureka Skydeck on September 16, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. The walk was the highest tightrope walk ever attempted in the Southern Hemisphere. The stunt is to mark the arrival of the film “The Walk” to Australian cinemas in October. The stunt saw Kane mimic the film's French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who successfully walked between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

A woman jumps as a friend (not seen) takes a photo in front of a large drawing of Pope Francis depicting him as a superhero near the Vatican January 29, 2014. The Argentinian Pope is shown taking off into air with his right fist clenched in a classic Superman style. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/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 member of the “Ladies in White” dissident group shouts as she is carried away by police officers after they broke up a regular march of the group, detaining about 50 people, hours before U.S. President Barack Obama arrives for a historic visit, in Havana, Cuba March 20, 2016. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

A Palestinian boy carries dates from palm trees during harvest season in southern Gaza September 25, 2016. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

A demonstrator wearing a mock school uniform costume is pictured next to a traffic police officer during a rally held to support women's rights to an abortion in Santiago, Chile, July 25, 2015. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)