A mahout splashes water on his elephant in the river Sabarmati on a hot summer day in Ahmedabad, India, May 20, 2015. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

In an observance of Epiphany, Russian Orthodox believers swim in an icy pond outside Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. (Photo by Olga “Zwezdochka”)

A participant in costume eats a sandwich after a Halloween parade in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, October 26, 2014. More than 100,000 spectators turned up to watch the parade, where 2,500 participants dressed up in costumes, according to the organiser. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

People in a pub druring the Whitby Goth Weekend in Whitby, Yorkshire, where Bram Stoker found some of his inspiration for “Dracula” after staying in the town in 1890 in Whitby, United Kingdom on October 29, 2017. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)

Iraqi paramilitary troops fire towards Islamic State militants during a battle with Islamic State militants on the outskirts of the ancient city of Hatra near Mosul,Iraq April 26, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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.

Vegetables, wood and charcoal are loaded onto the roof of a battered Peugeot on November 7, 2018 in Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the port of Matadi to the capital Kinshasa, a 350 km road crosses the south-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Junior D. Kannah/AFP Photo)

Grade 5 student Lovely Joy De Castro, 11, takes notes while attending an online class using a smartphone, as schools remain closed during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Manila South Cemetery where she lives with her family in Makati City, Philippines, November 6, 2020. (Photo by Eloisa Lopez/Reuters)