Actresses Pamela Anderson (L) and Elizabeth Hurley pose together as they arrive at the Vanity Fair post-Academy Awards party at Mortons in Los Angeles, March 25, 2001. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/AFP Photo via Getty Images)

Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas, who played Cuban secret agent Paloma in 2021’s “No Time to Die”. (Photo by Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar)

Nightmare: New York”, staged in a Lower East Side building, depicts the ugliest, scariest vision of 1970s- and '80s-era Gotham. Subways are awash in graffiti, creeps and crime. Here: In this October 2, 2014 photo, an actor performs during “Nightmare: New York”, a haunted house attraction in New York. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

Elvis Presley tribute artist Bruce Stewart (L) of Georgian Bay, Ontario passes Lorenz Francke of Scarborough, Ontario during the four-day Collingwood Elvis Festival in Collingwood, Ontario July 25, 2015. Featuring over 120 Elvis tribute artists, it is the world's largest Elvis festival and last year hosted 30,000 visitors. (Photo by Chris Helgren/Reuters)

National Beard and Moustache Championships 2015 Just for Men National Beard and Moustache Championships Presented by Hanes X-Temp, 2nd annual event honoring the best facial hair in America, with beardsmen from all over the world invited to compete. Categories include the Dali Moustache and the Full Beard Freestyle The World Beard and Moustache Association (WBMA) Championships have been held biennially since 1995 with the next competition due in 2017 in Kings Theatre, New York, NY, USA on November 7, 2015. (Photo by Dennis Van Tine/ABACAPress)

Women holding the Singapore national flag pose for a photograph at the Merlion Park to mark the 55th National Day celebrations in Singapore on August 9, 2020. National Day is celebrated in commemoration of Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)

New York nightclub owner Jack L Hickman spends his free time marching around Times Square with a sign that reads “The only good communist is a dead communist”. (Photo by Peter Keegan/Keystone/Getty Images). 26th April 1965

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.