An injured vulture is treated at the VulPro Vulture Rehabilitation Centre in Hartebeepoortdam in the Magalisburg region on September 15, 2015. Confined to southern Africa, just under 4,000 breeding pairs of Cape Vultures remain in the wild, mostly in South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana. Unless conservation efforts are successful, Africa's largest vulture species may be facing eventual extinction. (Photo by Mujahid Safodien/AFP Photo)

A palomino horse's mane is seen against the sky at Spancil Hill horse fair in Spancil Hill, Ireland June 23, 2018. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

A gorilla cube named Pepe eats frozen fruit to fight high temperatures at the Bioparc zoo in Valencia, eastern Spain, 28 June 2019. Spanish peninsula is suffering a heat wave with temperatures reaching up to 45 degrees. (Photo by Kai Foersterling/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.

A Muslim man carries holy incensed smoke through a pedestrian subway in Mumbai, India, May 13, 2016. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

“Freedom”. After the 30 years banning import large motorcycle, in 2007, the Taiwan government reopened the import licensing of the motorcycle displacement over 550 cubic centimeter. Those large bikes, which were never seen before, were strange thought and treated unequally frequently. However, those adversity will not stop those enthusiastic bike riders from chasing the road of freedom. Photo location: Taiwan. (Photo and caption by 火花 羅/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Saintsetseg Jambaldorj, a member of the Tsaatan ethnic minority, one of the last remaining groups of nomadic reindeer herders in East Taiga, Mongolia, wearing a traditional deel, on July 5, 2016. (Photo by Madoka Ikegami/Barcroft Images)

A purple haze of heather as the sun rises over the New Forest near Lyndhurst, Hampshire in UK on July 28, 2025. (Photo by Steve Hogan/Bournemouth News)