Children stand next to an image of a Chinese space suit displayed on a screen, at the InnoTech Expo in Hong Kong, China on December 13, 2022. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Folk artists perform “iron flowers”, a folk art performance of throwing molten iron to create fireworks, in Daying County of Suining City, southwest China's Sichuan Province on January 26, 2023. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A child reacts as a family takes a break next to a cooling mist at the Sensoji temple as Japanese government issued heat stroke alerts in 39 of the country's 47 prefectures in Tokyo, Japan on July 22, 2024. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

At the 2025 Spring Commencement Ceremony held at Dongguk University in Jung-gu, Seoul on the morning of the February 13th, 2025, graduates are taking graduation photos while riding on elephant statues. Only graduates are allowed to ride on the school's famous elephant statue of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. (Photo by Park Seong-won)

People pass by a light decoration during Valentine’s Day in Tirana, Albania, on February 14, 2024. (Photo by Florion Goga/Reuters)

A man reacts as he holds the equipment used by Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, at the site where he was killed along with other journalists and people in Israeli strikes on Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still image taken from a video shot by Reuters contractor Hatem Khaled, who was wounded shortly afterwards in another strike while he was filming the site on August 25, 2025. (Photo by Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

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 boy removes rain water from his hut after a heavy downpour in Karachi, Pakistan, 28 August 2016. Heavy monsoon rains across the country has claimed dozens of lives in last few weeks as Pakistan Meteorological Departmen office predict more rains in coming days. (Photo by Shahzaib Akber/EPA)