Models prepare backstage before presenting a creation from the Heaven Gaia by Xiong Ying during the China Fashion Week in Beijing on September 4, 2022. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

Visitors dressed as frogs walk along a popular street lined with bars, in Beijing, Friday, May 5, 2023. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Elephants dust themselves with soil at Taigan safari park in Belogorsk, Crimea on May 4, 2021. (Photo by Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)

Aerial view of tourists cooling off at a water park in summer on June 27, 2023 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China. Zhengzhou Meteorological Observatory on June 27 issued an orange alert for high temperatures. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Four-year-old Eve Hill enjoys the wet weather in York, northeast England on August 2, 2023. (Photo by James Glossop/The Times)

A drone view shows vehicles in the area affected by the floods, in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on May 3, 2024. (Photo by Diego Vara/Reuters)

A couple wears face masks as they share a moment during sunset on January 31, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. With over 9800 confirmed cases of Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) around the world, the virus has so far claimed over 200 lives. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

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.