A person looks at a giant sculpture depicting the funerary mask of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, titled “A Meal Fit for a King” and created by Microdesk, Inc. made out of 8,300 cans of tuna which will be donated to local food banks as part of the Canstruction exhibition in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 11, 2022. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Meade forward Jaisean Kenner (21) hauls down a rebound against Sherwood forward Bryce Johnson (33) during the Class 4A boys' semifinals on March 8, 2023. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's Mataria district gather to eat Iftar, the meal to end their fast at sunset, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt on April 6, 2023. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is greeted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a welcome ceremony on day one of the 50th G7 summit at Borgo Egnazia on June 13, 2024 in Fasano, Italy. The G7 summit in Puglia, hosted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the seventh held in Italy, gathers leaders from the seven member states, the EU Council, and the EU Commission. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/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 woman kneels down to pray at a “Pray and swipe right” event organised by online dating app Tinder, with social-distancing stickers featuring its flame logo on the praying ground, a photo booth where people can take profile pictures for their new accounts, and free offering sets, at the Trimuriti shrine on Valentine's Day in Bangkok, Thailand February 14, 2022. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

American singer and songwriter Ava Max gestures as she arrives at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 27, 2021. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

An infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope which shows generations of stars is seen in this undated NASA handout image released February 14, 2013. In this wispy star-forming region, called W5, the oldest stars can be seen as blue dots in the centers of the two hollow cavities (other blue dots are background and foreground stars not associated with the region). Red shows heated dust that pervades the region's cavities, while green highlights dense clouds. (Photo by NASA/Reuters/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian/Handout)