Spectators dance in the infield before the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY on Saturday, May 04, 2024. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

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.

Women Wrestlers, Bolivia. Lucha libre (Bolivian wrestling) is one of the most popular sports in the country. Women wrestlers are known as cholitas and have in the last ten years become popular in the sport. Here, Carmen Rosa and Yulia la Pacena perform in a benefit show to raise money for the bathrooms of a school in La Paz, Bolivia, 26 June 2011. (Photo by Daniele Tamagni)

A Turkana boy herds cows as he carries a rifle in north western Kenya near the town of Kibish inside the Turkana region of the Ilemy Triangle September 26, 2014. The Turkana people have historically clashed over ethnic differences and precious resources such as fishing, pasture and fresh water with other tribes bordering their territory, such as the Dassanach from southern Ethiopia. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

A police officer stands guard out of a venue where farmer leaders meet with government representatives in New Delhi, India, December 5, 2020. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

A woman sits on the rubble of her house in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey on February 14, 2023. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)

Macaque monkeys crowd together in their cage at a monkey farm on February 3, 2016 in Xinye county, Henan province, China. The area boasts a centuries-long and lucrative history of raising and training monkeys for performance. In Xinye, villagers are seeing an increase in business with the lunar calendar's “Year of the Monkey”. Farmers say most of the monkeys are bred and raised for domestic zoos, circuses, and performing groups, but add that some are also sold for medical research in China and the United States. Despite the popularity of the tradition, critics contend the training methods and conditions constitute animal cruelty. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A masked man in military fatigues brings a blindfolded Irma Krat, arrested and held by pro-Russian protestors before her meeting with journalists near of occupied police station in Slaviansk, Ukraine, 21 April 2014. Pro-Russian activists are demanding broader autonomy from Kiev and closer ties to Russia. Pro-Russian activists continued occupying government, police and other administrative buildings in eastern Ukrainian cities, in defiance of an ultimatum by the Ukrainian government to lay down their weapons. Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine on 17 April had agreed on steps to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine during talks in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA)