Sam Warren climbs in to a prototype combat vehicle during the PrepperCon expo Friday, April 24, 2015, in Sandy, Utah. Hundreds of survivalists and “preppers” are gathering in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy for the first annual PrepperCon, featuring demonstrations of underground bunkers, food storage, and armored vehicles. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

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.

Grey seal pup “Nikolaus” licks a window at the seal enclosure in Friedrichskoog, Germany, 19 December 2014. The pup was abandoned by his mother and would not have a chance at survival without human help. Nikolaus will be fed at the enclosure for two to three months until he has reached the minimum weight of 45 kilograms for being released. (Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/EPA)

French performer Odile De Mainville applies a makeup backstage before the Parisian transvestite cabaret show at “Madame Arthur” in Paris, on September 29, 2023. Open since 1946, Madame Arthur is the oldest transformist cabaret in Paris. Threatened with extinction the cabaret is undergoing a renaissance, attracting younger customers by returning to the fundamentals of the lie: baroque and queer performers who play with genres and conventions, and sing French hits live. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)

A model poses backstage ahead of the NLP show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia 2014 at Carriageworks on April 7, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Construction of the cable road on Broadway in 1891. (Photo by New York Public Library)

A participant wearing his cosplay featuring a character from an animation gets his government contact tracing QR code in the “LeaveHomeSafe” COVID-19 mobile app scanned at Ani-Com and Games exhibition in Hong Kong, Friday, July 29, 2022. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

A boy plays in water from a broken fire hydrant in Rosemead, California on Saturday, May 10, 2025, seeking relief as spring heat breaks temperature records across the Southland. (Photo by Ringo Chiu/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)