A woman eats an ice cream as people sunbathe on the beach in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, January 26, 2024. Spain's weather agency says recent abnormally high temperatures for this time of year are set to continue in many parts of Spain on Friday and over the weekend, with an almost summer-like feeling in many coastal areas as people take to the beaches to sunbathe and some to have a winter swim. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Humanoid robots fight during a kickboxing match on day two of the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games at National Speed Skating Oval on August 16, 2025 in Beijing, China. The 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG) will be held from August 14 to 17 in Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, bringing together 280 teams from 16 countries across five continents. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/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.

A visiter is attracted by the chairs covered with solar panels at the factory of Yingli Green Energy Holding Company, also known as Yingli Solar, on June 20, 2011 in Baoding city of Hebei Province, China. According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), China overtook America as the world' s largest energy consumer in 2010. New energy industries are becoming even more important than in the past. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

A performer is covered in chocolate sauce at the Notting Hill Carnival on August 28, 2011 in London, England. The annual carnival, which is the largest of it's kind in Europe and is expected to attract around 1 million revellers, has taken place every August Bank Holiday since 1966. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Bonhams expert Michaela Vergottis holds a yellow Jade Chinese Imperial Sceptre on May 9, 2011 in London, England. The piece which is thought to have been taken by British Troups during the Boxer Rebellion is expected to fetch between £800,000 – 1.2 M GBP when it goes on sale at the “Chinese Art” sale at Bonham's auction house on May 12, 2011. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Newly commissioned 2nd lieutenants throw their caps in the air as a team of F-16 Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the 2011 graduating class of the U.S. Air Force Academy on May 25, 2011 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A total of 1,021 graduates received their diplomas in front of their families and dignitaries at the Academy's Falcon Stadium. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

A sign marks a railway crossing next to the troubled Kruemmel nuclear power plant on June 2, 2011 in Geesthacht, Germany. The German government recently announced it will phase out the country's 17 remaining nuclear reactors by 2022 in a policy initiative that represents a radical reversal from its previous policy and was sparked by the disaster at Fukushima. Kruemmel went into operation in 1983 but was taken offline following a fire in 2007. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)