A women drink outside the disco bar on September 18, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. As there have been no recorded cases of community transmission in Wuhan since May, life for residents is returning to normal. (Photo by Getty Images)

A woman reacts after she was hit with pepper spray deployed by police as they cleared a street with protesters rallying against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020, on the 23rd anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China. A man found in possession of a Hong Kong independence flag became the first person to be arrested under Beijing's new national security law for the city, police said on July 1. (Photo by Dale De La Rey/AFP Photo)

A large brawl breaks out as people leave the track after Sydney Racing at Rosehill Gardens on December 07, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock wears Union Jack socks as he leaves with Britain's Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Evans after a cabinet meeting on Downing Street in London, Britain on January 7, 2020. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

A mural depicting Prime Minister Scott Morrison wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, orange lei and Santa Claus hat while holding a cocktail by artist Scott Marsh is seen on a wall in Sydney, Wednesday, December 25, 2019. Morrison was under pressure since taking a much criticized family vacation to Hawaii during the wildfire crisis.(Photo by Steven Saphore/AAP Images via AP Photo)

In this photograph taken on September 13, 2022, newly recruited Taliban fighters parade in armoured vehicles after their graduation ceremony in Herat. (Photo by Mohsen Karimi/AFP 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 soldiers with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Battle Company, on a battalion-wide mission in the Korengal Valley, looking for caves, weapons caches and known Taliban leaders, 2007. Tanner Stichter tends to Spc. Carl Vandeberge in the bushes moments after Vandeberge was shot in the stomach during a Taliban ambush, which killed one soldier and wounded two others. (Photo by Lynsey Addario)