Actors perform during the ice sculptures festival “Ice Moscow” in Moscow, Russia, 06 January 2025. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE)

Writer, comedian, cabaret performer and drag icon Verushka Darling poses near Qtopia Sydney on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is taking place through March 2. (Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage/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.

Farmers ride home on a tractor pulling an overloaded trailer full of straw in a village outside Faisalabad, Pakistan May 3, 2017. (Photo by Caren Firouz/Reuters)

A security man keeps guard during Malawi's President elect Arthur Peter Mutharika swearing in ceremony at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on May 28, 2019, after a contentious election marred by allegations of fraud and vote-rigging. The Malawi Electoral Commission announced on Monday that Mutharika, who heads the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had narrowly won last week's vote after an injunction barring the release of the results was lifted. (Photo by Amos Gumulira/AFP Photo)

A woman shouting into a megaphone during a “Kill the Bill” protest in Manchester City Centre on April 3, 2021 in Manchester, United Kingdom. Protests around the United Kingdom have been held in opposition to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The proposed legislation, which would apply to England and Wales, covers a wide range of issues and would broaden the police's authority for regulating protests. (Photo by Mercury Press and Media)

It doesn’t make for the most flattering photoshoot, but there is a reason these zebras at Lewa wildlife conservancy in Kenya in the second decade of August 2025 are stood head to tail: they use their tails to swat flies from each others’ faces. (Photo by Andrew Campbell/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A visitor poses with artist Joyce Pensato's artwork “Mickey for Micky” at the Frieze Art Fair in London, October 14, 2014. (Photo by Luke MacGregor/Reuters)