A former living goddess Kumari, middle, watches the Indra Jatra festival, an eight-day festival that honors Indra, the Hindu god of rain, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Friday, September 13, 2019. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Female seal “Lotte” swims in a pool of her enclosure at the zoo in Rostock, northeastern Germany, on September 27, 2019. (Photo by Bernd Wuestneck/dpa/AFP Photo)

East Berliners crossing into the West Berlin on November 11, 1989 at the Potsdamer Platz, Germany. (Photo by Kai Wiedenhoefer)

An enterprising Chinese man pulls a bicycle cart packed high with bags of recyclable plastic containers in Shanghai July 25, 2002. The man sells each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plastic for 0.08 yuan ($.01) to a nearby depot. (Photo by Claro Cortes IV/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.

A girl walks past outside a house damaged by tidal waves at Meulaboh beach in Aceh province on July 12, 2020. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

People run for cover following an explosion in Beirut's port area, Lebanon on August 4, 2020. A mega-blast tore through the harbour in the heart of the Lebanese capital with the force of an earthquake, killing more than 100 people and injuring over 4,000. (Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

A young trumpeter joins the Anglican Church band as the coffin of late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu arrives outside the St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, 31 December 2021. The anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who was a key figure in the dismantling of apartheid, died on 26 December 2021 at the age of 90. A full state funeral will be held on 01 January 2022. (Photo by Nic Bothma/EPA/EFE)