Visitors view Patricia Piccinini's “The Embrace” artwork during the “You Know Who” exhibition at the Abdulmecit Efendi mansion in Istanbul, Turkey, 27 September 2022. The exhibition, which by the organizers is described as questioning “the representation of the unknown in contemporary art, based on the symbolic world of the supernatural and unknown in the Byzantine period”, is shown from 20 September until 11 December 2022. (Photo by Erdem Sahin/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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.

An Indian girl dressed in traditional attire reacts to camera as she watches a cultural performance during Lohri festival in Jammu, India, Monday, January 13, 2014. Lohri is a celebration of the winter solstice observed by Hindus and Sikhs in northern India. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

Children of Indian laborers play on make-shift swings in Amritsar, India, May 12, 2015. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

UK Big Brother star Chloe Khan washes her Land Rover wearing a bikini and hot pants in Borehamwood, England on September 22, 2016. (Photo by Palace Lee)

2016 Rio Olympics, Opening ceremony, Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 5, 2016. Athletes of Colombia take part in the opening ceremony. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

Ranger trainees and trainee dogs simulate an ambush against rhino poachers at the Paramount Group Anti-Poaching training and K9 (canine) academy on November 26, 2014 in Magaliesberg, South Africa. One of the largest of its kind in Africa, the Academy will address the ever increasing need for training of Conservation Officers in anti poaching activities, wildlife contraband detection, specialist K9 solutions and Ranger K9 handler training – all of which have proven success rates in combatting and apprehending poachers and their activities. (Photo by Gianluigi Guercia/AFP Photo)

A protester from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) displays a placard from a bathtub as a people looks on during a demonstration to call on the public to eat more vegetables to save water, in Sao Paulo on August 2, 2016. (Photo by Cris Faga via ZUMA Wire)