A participant of the “Mrs Universe 2015” contest from Caribbean Coast, Mayra Joli poses for a photo with a woman during their visit in central botanical garden in Minsk, Belarus, August 25, 2015. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Students from CAS Ballet Theatre School stretch on the sidewalk Saturday, February 20, 2016, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Photo by Junfu Han/The Ann Arbor News via AP Photo)

Mechanic and welder Sergei Kulagin, 32, strengthens the bracing of a spider sculpture, made by Kulagin, during a demonstration on the wall of an automobile repair workshop in the town of Divnogorsk outside Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, October 15, 2014. Enthusiast Kulagin, who works as a mechanic of an automobile service station, created about 20 sculptures made of used car parts and components during his non-working hours. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

In this photo taken Saturday, January 24, 2015, a child makes a face while having her photo taken with the snow covered slopes of the Nanshan ski resort behind her in Beijing. As Beijing makes a final push in its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chinese President Xi Jinping says winning the bid will encourage over 300 million Chinese to take up winter sports by 2022, according to state-run Xinhua News agency. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A masked reveller parades through the streets on the first day of the carnival season in Lucerne, Switzerland, 12 February 2015. In the background the well known Kappellbruecke bridge. (Photo by Alexandra Wey/EPA)

Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi attends a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale Palace on June 10, 2009 in Rome, Italy. Colonel Gaddafi is in Rome to attend a meeting of G8 Development Ministers. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images). ROME – JUNE 10

Women perform a pole dancing routine during the national day celebration of “Urban Pole” dance along a street in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 9, 2013. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/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.