In this photo taken on January 20, 2024 a tourist poses in front of incense sticks drying in a courtyard in the village of Quang Phu Cau on the outskirts of Hanoi. Families living and working in the “incense village” of Quang Phu Cau now also make sticks in yellow, blue and green, catering to visitors eager to snap shots for Instagram. (Photo by Nhac Nguyen/AFP Photo)

A small flock of birds seems to be giving an escort to an airliner on final approach to Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on January 12, 2022. The scene took place over Gravelly Point which is an area within the National Park Service's George Washington Memorial Parkway. (Photo by Michael S. Williamson/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.

Woman carrying luggage walks along a railway track on the outskirts of Mumbai, India on November 12, 2020. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

Cute sеxy caucasian brunette young woman dressed as Mrs. Santa Claus, smiling with joy, biting a candy cane with eyes closed, Christmas or New Years Eve 2022 concept. (Photo by Cryptographer/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton (L) and Jenson Button unveil the new MP-27 Formula 1 car at the McLaren technology centre on February 1, 2012 in Woking, England. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

A combination photo shows some of the colourful doors seen in Rabat's Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas, September 2014. UNESCO made Rabat a World Heritage Site two years ago and media and tour operators call it a “must-see destination”. But it seems the tourist hordes have yet to find out. While visitors are getting squeezed through the better-known sites of Marrakesh and Fez, the old part of Rabat - with its beautiful Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas - remains an almost unspoiled oasis of calm. Smaller and more compact, its labyrinths of streets, passages and dead ends are a treasure trove of shapes and colours, of moments begging to be caught by the photographer's lens. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Mary Hickey poses with her collection of dolls at her home in Ashbourne, Ireland October 9, 2013. Hickey has been collecting the dolls for over thirty years and now owns over 420 dolls. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)