A model prepares backstage at the Meskita fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 on September 4, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Meskita)

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.

Monsoon thunderstorm in Sierra Vista, Arizona. 9 Sept, 2011. (Photo by Steven Maguire)

Civilians, who fled the violence in Manbij city, arrive to the southeastern rural area of Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria June 19, 2016. (Photo by Rodi Said/Reuters)

A Geisha girl pouring a drink for a visitor, circa 1955. (Photo by Fox Photos). P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution.

A U.S. Army B-24 Liberator Bomber is hailed by a ground crewman as it takes off over a line of shark- nosed fighter planes at an advanced base in China on a mission on October 10, 1943, to bomb Japanese installations. (Photo by AP Photo)

Young Ukrainians dance at nightclub House of Meteorologists, May 23, 2014. Sunday's upcoming election in Ukraine has not only exposed the divide between east and west, but between old and young. Unlike their elders, younger people have no memory of Soviet life, and most see themselves as Ukrainian. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post)

Traditional dancers are seen at Ela Beach, near a venue of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 13 November 2018. The APEC summit brings together world leaders from its 21 member nations and is being hosted for the first time by Papua New Guinea. (Photo by Mast Irham/EPA/EFE)