The Blue Man Group performs on stage during a media preview ahead of their show in Singapore on March 31, 2016. Blue Man Group was started by three friends in New York in 1991 as a way to celebrate the human spirit through music, science, art and theater. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)

A girl plays on a pile of discarded flowers outside a market, the day after the Diwali celebrations in Mumbai, India October 31, 2016. (Photo by Shailesh Andrade/Reuters)

A student shouts slogans against Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro during a protest on the main highway in Caracas on March 30, 2017. Venezuela' s Supreme Court took over legislative powers Wednesday from the opposition- majority National Assembly, whose speaker accused leftist President Nicolas Maduro of staging a “coup”. (Photo by Juan Barreto/AFP Photo)

Indian dancers paint their body like tigers as they perform a Tiger dance during the International day of the Tiger in Calcutta, India, July 29, 2015. Students of Calcutta are taking part in an awareness campaign aiming to draw attention to the threats that tigers face due to habitat loss and poaching. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA)

Friends of Li Guojun drive a homemade tank-shaped vehicle in Kangping county, China. Li, a farmer who is a fan of tanks, spent six months with help from his friends to construct the almost 20-foot vehicle which weighs 2.5 tons. (Photo by Sheng Li/Reuters)

A participant of the sled dogs race in action with the dogs in Stroehen (Lower Saxony), Germany, 18 October 2015. It is the first round of the North German Championship. (Photo by Peter Steffen/EPA)

American reality show contestant Courtney Stodden is caught kissing a mystery woman on the beach in Santa Monica, CA on September 16, 2016. Courtney and the mystery brunette couldn't keep their hands of each other and didn't seem to care who saw their antics as they frolicked on the sand. (Photo by Canham/Splash News)

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.