Firework display from the top of the Sky Tower to welcome the New Year on January 1, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

Cosplayer Monzerath Gutierrez, who portrays Dragon Ball Z character Trunks, female version, poses for a portrait during the 4th edition of the MiniCon Anime convention, at the School of Dance, in Managua, Nicaragua, Sunday, July, 26, 2015. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)

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.

Visitors review their cell phone photos of an installation called “Plexus A1” by artist Gabriel Dawe, one of nine large-scale art installations displayed at the “Wonders” exhibit at the Renwick Art Gallery in Washington, DC, Wednesday, January 13, 2016. Built in the 1860s, the Renwick was the first American building to be designed specifically as an art museum; it recently reopened after a two year renovation. (Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA)

Chacha, the male chimp, screams at a worker in Sendai, northern Japan, Thursday, April 14, 2016 after fleeing from a zoo. The chimpangzee tried desperately to avoid being captured by climbing an electric pole. Chacha was on the loose nearly two hours Thursday after it disappeared from the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai, the city that's hosting finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations in May. (Photo by Kyodo News via AP Photo)

A girl rides on a train as she takes part in the first edition of the No Pants Subway Ride in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, January 11, 2015. The No Pants Subway Ride is an annual which was started in 2002 by Improv Everywhere in New York, the goal is for riders to get on the subway train dressed in normal winter clothes without pants and keep a straight face. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

This artist image released from Japan's airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) on April 17, 2015 shows ANA's Boeing 787-9 aircraft into the colors of R2-D2 robot of Star Wars. Japanese air carrier ANA will place the special colored jetliner in service in this autumn. (Photo by AFP Photo/All Nippon Airways)

In this October 24, 2010 file photo, Canadian-born actress Pamela Anderson poses for photographers during a photocall to unveil a new advertisement in aid of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in London to encourage people to go vegetarian. PETA turns 35 years old in 2015, is the largest animal rights group in world with 3 million members, and has done a lot with a little s*x, shock and celebrity. (Photo by Akira Suemori/AP Photo)