This picture taken on January 25, 2015 shows a participant taking part in an ice water challenge in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan province. Participants were required to stay in an ice pond, holding an ice block while eating ice-cream with an electric fan blowing at them. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A man wades through flood waters carrying his grand daughter on his back following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Charsadda, Pakistan on August 28, 2022. (Photo by Fayaz AzizAziz/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.

Youths, who covered themselves from head to toe in silver paint to become “manusia silver” (silvermen), as part of their act to make a living, laugh as they ride on the back of a truck in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 31, 2021. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

People watch as an acrobat rides his motorcycle around a circular track at an entertainment park set up outside a shrine in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on June 19, 2013. (Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pamukkale, Turkey, is home to these terrace pools, formed by the build-up of carbonate mineral from the warm water flowing from the thermal springs above. (Photo by Image Courtesy of Jennifer Hayes/Getty Images)

There were huge thunder and lightening stroms in the South of England last night. Photographer Jamie Russell captured a stuning lightening striking the sea at Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight on September 6, 2022. (Photo by Jamie Russell/Bournemouth News)

A visitor to ''The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900'' exhibition at The V&A Museum looks at sculptures by Thornycroft (L) and Watts on March 30, 2011 in London, England. This exhibition brings together for the first time many masterpieces in painting, sculpture, design and furniture as well as fashion and literature and runs from April 2nd to July 17th 2011.