Afghan children buy breads from a bakery in Fayzabad of Badakhshan province on February 7, 2024. (Photo by Omer Abrar/AFP Photo)

A boy plays with a dragon-shaped puppet as he walks with his parent at Sydney CBD ahead of the Lunar New Year on February 09, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is celebrated around the world, and the Year of the Wood Dragon in 2024 is associated with growth, progress, and abundance, as wood represents vitality and creativity, while the dragon symbolizes success, intelligence, and honor. (Photo by Roni Bintang/Getty Images)

Traditional dancers with their masks look on before their performance during “Nawa Durga Nach” Hindu dance festival in Bhaktapur on the outskirts of Kathmandu on March 28, 2024. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

Jasmine Paolini hits a forehand during her first-round US Open match on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Ray Giubilo)

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 masked participant carries a burning matress during the ancient carnival of Zubieta, in the northern Spanish Navarra province on January 30, 2018. The yearly three day festivities, revolving mainly around agriculture and principally sheep hearding, run on the last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of January where Navarra Valley locals from two villages dress up and participate in a variety of activites as they perform a pilgrimage through each village. (Photo by Ander Gillenea/AFP Photo)

A deer walks across a pedestrian crossing in Nara, Japan, Thursday, March 19, 2020. More than 1,000 deer roam free in the ancient capital city of Japan. Despite the town's tourism decline, these wild animals are doing just fine without treats from tourists, according to a deer protection group. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

New Market traders rescue an injured shopkeeper who got hurt during a clash with students from Dhaka college in Dhaka on April 19, 2022. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP Photo)