People wearing Christmas hats bath in a pool of watermelon peel during a Christmas service at a hot spring in Luoyang, Henan province, China, December 24, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Female Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters watch on as they release a bear into the wild in the Gara Mountains near the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on March 4, 2018, after Iraqi Kurdish Animal rights activists from a local NGO rescued it from a private home. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP 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.

Contorsionist Rich Miteku performs during the opening of the 41st Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival in Monaco on January 19, 2017. (Photo by Valery Hache/AFP Photo)

Chinese women run with a ball on a snow covered field in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning province during International Women's Day on March 8, 2018. International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 every year and commemorates the movement for women's rights. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)