Performers ride on a train before the 40th annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade in the Brooklyn borough of New York, New York, USA, 18 June 2022. The annual event is one of the largest art parades in the country. (Photo by Yuki Iwamura/EPA/EFE)

American actress Kate Hudson gives a shoutout to Italian luxury fashion house Maison Valentino in the second decade of July 2022. (Photo by katehudson/Instzgram)

A couple embrace in silhouette at Craigyhill loyalist bonfire in Larne, Co Antrim on Monday July 11, 2022, on the “Eleventh night” to usher in the Twelfth commemorations. (Photo by Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images)

A picture made available on 07 March 2016 shows visitors petting and holding a Fennec fox, native to the Sahara, in the petting room at the Little Zoo Cafe, a business built to capitalize on Thais' love for exotic animals, and food, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, 05 March 2016. The cafe boasts Fennec foxes, Meerkat, native to parts of Africa, Silver Fox, Raccoon and Chinchillas, along with a menu of Thai food and Cheesecake, among other sweet deserts. Nature is a faraway fantasy in the bustling exhaust-filled cement city of Bangkok, fuelling a demand to own and be close to exotic pets. The trend to be near to a species that was once wild, in a city environment, far from the natural setting, has drawn criticism but continues to grow. (Photo by Barbara Walton/EPA)

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.

Lowry Park Zoo elephants Matjeka, 23, and her 1-year-old daughter, Mavi, apply a liberal coating of “sunscreen” to themselves in a clay mud wallow at the park Tuesday, August 12, 2014, in Tampa, Fla., on the park's first observation of World Elephant Day to raise awareness of the wild African elephant crisis. “Elephants are prone to being sunburned”, said associate curator Chris Massaro. “What they need is lot of mud or clay to roll around in and cover up their skin so it will protect it from the sun”. (Photo by Cherie Diez/AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times)

In this May 17, 2017 photo, cowboy cook Odair Batista carries a case with food in Corumba, the Pantanal wetlands of Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil. Dressed with leather chaps on top of their jeans, stetson hats and a machete attached to their waists, before setting off, the men finish their breakfast with Terere, an herbal “mate” beverage served ice cold in an ox drinking horn. (Photo by Eraldo Peres/AP Photo)

Courtney Stodden is seen on June 22, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)