In this July 12, 2007 file photo, a two-day-old piping plover runs along a beach in the Quonochontaug Conservation Area in Westerly, R.I. (Photo by Steven Senne/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.

A sledding dog is covered in ice after spending the night in the open air with his musher at the polar base of Val-Cenis, as they ready for the next stage of the 12th edition of “La Grande Odyssee” sledding race across the Alps on January 17, 2016 in Val Cenis Lanslevillard. (Photo by Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP Photo)

Nosy neighbour by Sam Hobson, UK. Sam knew exactly who to expect when he set his camera on the wall one summer’s evening in a suburban street in Bristol, the UK’s famous fox city. He wanted to capture the inquisitive nature of the urban red fox in a way that would pique the curiosity of its human neighbours about the wildlife around them. (Photo by Sam Hobson/2016 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Mystical Forest. Tracey Jennings photographed this seven-gill shark in a kelp forest just off the shore of Simon's Town near Cape Town, South Africa. You don't need to travel far from cities to visit Narnia. This 7 gill shark was photographed in a kelp forest just off the shore of Simonstown near Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Tracey Jennings/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

Performers wearing traditional outfits from Gujarat state perform during a press preview of tableaux participating in the forthcoming Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 22, 2020. (Photo by Prakash Singh/AFP Photo)

Two young girls play near a makeshift tent where their family stay after the earthquake in Samandag, southern Turkey, Thursday, February 16, 2023. Ever since the Feb. 6 earthquake decimated swaths of Turkey and Syria, survivors have gathered outside destroyed houses and apartments, refusing to leave. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

Waiters pose at their terrace of their restaurant rue de Buci in Paris on June 2, 2020, as cafes and restaurants reopen in France, while the country eases lockdown measures taken to curb the spread of the COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus). (Photo by Martin Bureau/AFP Photo)