People attend in costume the 2022 New York Comic Con, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., October 6, 2022. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

A truck driver cleans the mirror of his decorated truck in Charsadda outside Peshawar, Pakistan October 18, 2016. (Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)

A girl is splashed with water by boys following a Polish Wet Easter Monday tradition, in Wilamowice, Poland, Monday, April. 17, 2017. (Photo by Jarek Praszkiewicz/AP Photo)

A health worker administers a dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to a worker in a local entertainment venue area where a new cluster of COVID-19 infections were found in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Officials in Thailand’s capital have ordered a two-week closure of all entertainment venues in three districts to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus from nightspots there. (Photo by Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo)

Australian cosplay enthusiast Sunni Daniele dressed up as his favourite character from either animation, comic or video game poses for a photograph during Oz Comic Con in Sydney, Australia, 27 September 2015. Cosplay is a combination of the words 'costume' and 'play' where fans dress up as their favourite Japanese comic characters. (Photo by Dan Himbrechts/EPA)

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.

Beda Haemmerli drives his 1936 Ford Indy race car (front) through a steep turn during the Indianapolis in Oerlikon race demonstration at the Offene Rennbahn cycling track in Zurich's Oerlikon suburb, Switzerland July 24, 2018. (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

An Indian woman dressed in traditional attire rides a motorcycle as she participates in a procession to mark Gudi Padwa or the Marathi New Year in Mumbai, Maharashtra state, India, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)