A group of boys toss their friend into the water at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States on June 25, 2024. New England temperatures reached into the high 80's(F) and low 90's(F) this week after a heatwave brought temperatures close to 100(F) last week. Heat domes causing heatwaves have been hitting the US over the past week with high alerts placed in the I-95 corridor on the East Coast. The National weather service has predicted above-normal temperatures for most the US for the month of July. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu via 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.

Two and a half year-old Jennifer Martin in tears during a visit to Santa at Harrods department store in London, 10th December 1949. (Photo by William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Sweden's Mikael Ymer slips and falls in the first round match of the French Open tennis tournament against Serbia's Novak Djokovic at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France, Tuesday, September 29, 2020. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/AP Photo)

Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates with champagne on the podium after winning the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo on May 28, 2023. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

An Indigenous woman smokes during a protest demanding a better health care system be made available in her region, including the hiring of more doctors and nurses as well as the building of more clinics, outside the Ministry of Health in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, February 8, 2023. (Photo by Gustavo Moreno/AP Photo)

A greater bird of paradise (Paradisaea apoda) displaying in Badigaki Forest, Wokam Island (Aru Islands, Indonesia). Found here in Aru and on adjacent New Guinea, the greater bird of paradise represents about 40 different species of birds of paradise that depend on intact rainforest across the New Guinea region spanning eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. With more than 80% of forest cover still intact, this region represents the largest remaining block of rainforest in the entire Asia-Pacific. (Photo by Tim Laman/naturepl.com/LDY Agency)

A man poses for a photograph in front of a mural of Democrat US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton clad in a swimsuit bearing the colours of the US flag in West Footscray in Melbourne on July 30, 2016. An Australian mural of US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a revealing, stars and stripes swimsuit may be taken down, after it has reportedly been deemed offensive. (Photo by Paul Crock/AFP Photo)