England fans react as they watch a live broadcast of the Women's Euro final football match between England and Spain, at Boxpark Wembley in London on July 27, 2025. (Photo by Niklas Halle'n/AFP Photo)

US marines watch the mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion rise above the Yucca flats, Nevada during a US nuclear weapons test. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). USA, 1945

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad watches as Pope John Paul II boards his plane at Damascus airport May 8, 2001 at the end of the Pontiff's four-day visit to Syria.

Spectators are swept by huge waves while watching tides of Qiantang River at a dike on August 31, 2011 in Haining, Zhejiang Province of China. More than 20 spectators were injured by strong tides as the typhoon Nanmadol approached on Wednesday. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/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.

People watch a crocodile with a used motorcycle tyre around its neck on a river in Palu, Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia September 20, 2016 in this picture taken by Antara Foto. Residents suspect the tyre was garbage thrown into the river before it became trapped around the crocodile's neck, reported Antara. (Photo by Mohamad Hamzah/Reuters/Antara Foto)

A young boy plugs his ears as his sister (C) and nanny (L) watch from Gravelly Point Park as planes land at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on June 29, 2017. President Donald Trump' s travel ban on people from six mostly Muslim countries will come into force late Thursday, as controversy swirls over who qualifies for an exemption based on family ties. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP Photo)

Girls sleep in the back of their father's moto-taxi as he watches them from the front seat, days after an earthquake in Pedernales, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 20, 2016. A fresh tremor rattled Ecuador before dawn Wednesday, a magnitude-6.1 jolt that set babies crying and shaken residents pouring once again into the streets, fearful of yet more damage following a monster earthquake over the weekend. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)