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.

A man works on a small replica of the Iron Man armor next to a homemade replica of the “Hulkbuster” Iron Man armour from the movie “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, at an underground parking lot in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, May 12, 2015. The 3.4-metre-tall replica is made of over 100 fiber-reinforced plastic components. It took Xing and his friends two months to put them together after watching the trailer of the movie in March, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

This photo taken on August 7, 2016 shows mahjong enthusiasts playing mahjong under water in a swimming pool at a diving club in the Chinese city of Chongqing. Only participants with proper diving certification were allowed to take part in the underwater competition. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A girl presents the new Oktoberfest beer festival mug in a Oktoberfest tent in Munich, southern Germany, on August 21, 2014. The world famous beer festival Oktoberfest will takes place from September 20 to October 5, 2014. (Photo by Christof Stache/AFP Photo)

A monkey is led by its trainer Qi Defang during training for a circus in Suzhou, Anhui province, November 29, 2014. Suzhou is known as the hometown of circus troupes in China and has more than 300 circus troupes. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

Performer Zhang Yashu from a Chinese ballet company perform during a photo shoot in front of the Australia's iconic landmarks Opera House (L) and Habour Bridge in Sydney on February 17, 2014. One of China's celebrated dance campanies is bringing one of the country's biggest ballet production to Australia for a series of performances in Sydney and Melbourne. (Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP Photo)

Athletes from Australia's Olympic team going to the 2016 Olympics in Rio present their uniforms alongside Brazilian Samba dancer Sashya Jay at an official unveiling ceremony at Sydney's Bondi Beach, March 30, 2016. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

A damaged vehicle is seen next to the ring road, around Skopje, near the village of Stajkovci, Skopje, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 08 August 2016. At least 21 people have died and more than 100 are injured in the heavy rain storm that hit the Macedonian capital Skopje late Saturday night causing severe damage to the roads and house infrastructure. More than 80 vehicles were hit by landslides at Skopje's ring road. The highway remains closed. The government announced a 15-day state of emergency in the Skopje and Tetovo region. (Photo by Georgi Licovski/EPA)