Volunteers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organisation, take part in a route march on the outskirts of Chennai on April 16, 2023. (Photo by R.Satish Babu/AFP Photo)

Workers repair a damaged road, in the aftermath of an earthquake, near Anamizu, Japan on January 3, 202. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Indian girl, Amrita Bannerjee, gets dressed as the Goddess Durga, during Kumari Puja ritual as part of the Durga Puja festival at Shidaspur village, far north of Kolkata, India, 30 September 2025. During the Kumari Puja, devotees worship a girl aged between six and twelve, symbolizing the Kanya Kumari (virgin) form of the Goddess Durga Devi. Hindu devotees believe that Kanya is a living embodiment of the goddess Durga. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA)

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 man takes a block of ice out of an ice factory for sale in Iraq's southern city of Basra on July 8, 2023. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

A snow leopard looks on from an inside of a cage, after being captured from the southern plains of Nepal and brought to the central zoo, which wildlife experts say is rare for the animal that is found in the higher altitude, in Kathmandu, Nepal on January 26, 2024. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Indigenous people march during the annual Free Earth camp, where they discuss rights, territorial protection and their role in COP30, which will take place for the first time in the Amazon, in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Photo by Eraldo Peres/AP Photo)

A tourist cools off in front of a misting fan near a venue of the Hozuki-Ichi (Japanese lantern plant fair), at Sensoji temple, in Tokyo, Japan, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)