Canadian actress Shay Mitchell gets fitted for a photo shoot in the second decade of December 2023. (Photo by Shaymitchell/Instagram)

Celebrities arrive to the screening of Netflix's “Our Little Secret” at The Paris Theatre on November 18, 2024 in New York City, New York, USA. Pictured: American actress and singer-songwriter lindsay lohan. (Photo by Ouzounova/Splash News and Pictures)

American media personality and socialite Kylie Jenner shows off her tiny waist in a new Khy bodysuit in the second decade of March 2025. (Photo by kyliejenner/Instagram)

“Kissing Booth” star Joey King (in blue wig) and “Game of Thrones” alum Maisie Williams laugh it up while enjoying a night on the town full of shots and karaoke in the second decade of September 2025. (Photo by Joey King/Instagram)

Waura Indians wrestle during this year's “quarup”, a ritual held over several days to honour in death a person of great importance to them, in Xingu National Park, Mato Grosso State, Brazil August 25, 2013. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

“Strike Through The Mothership”. Every May for the last 3 years I have driven down to Tornado Alley to capture some amazing storms. This supercell held so much promise to drop a tornado but one small shift in the atmosphere and all that it produced was an extreme lightning show. Photo location: Broken Bow, Nebraska. (Photo and caption by Vanessa Neufeld/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Revelers jump on a rainbow painted crosswalk in Church Street, Toronto's LGBT neighbourhood, before “WorldPride”, a gay pride parade, in Toronto, June 29, 2014. Toronto is hosting WorldPride, a week-long event that celebrates the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Reuters)

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.