Pedestrians fight wind and rain as they cross Hollywood Boulevard during Tropical Storm Hilary, Sunday, August 20, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

A girl plays at the West Side Hallo Fest, a Halloween festival in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, October 27, 2023. Tens of thousands streamed last weekend to Bucharest's Angels' Island peninsula for what was the biggest Halloween festival in the Eastern European nation since the fall of Communism. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Sarah Everhardt of the U.S. performs during the gala exhibition in the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships at the Mokdong ice rink in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, February 23, 2025. (Photo by Lee Jin-man/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.

A member of the Palace staff arranges Queen Victoria's Stuart Ball costume which is part of an exhibition to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) this year at Buckingham Palace in London, Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The exhibition, Queen Victoria's Palace at the Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace from 20 July – 29 September 2019, will tell the story of her 62-year reign and her life at Buckingham Palace, which began when she ascended to the throne in June 1837. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

Rapper Cardi B is seen in Paris, France on September 30, 2019 at Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

Sophia answers questions at Hanson Robotics studio in Hong Kong on March 29, 2021. Sophia is a robot of many talents — she speaks, jokes, sings and even makes art. In March, she caused a stir in the art world when a digital work she created as part of a collaboration was sold at an auction for $688,888 in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). (Photo by Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain reacts after the men's single tennis match of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on March 01, 2023. (Photo by Amr Alfiky/Reuters)