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 woman takes a selfie in front of a Lunar New Year display featuring sheep at a shopping mall in Hong Kong, February 13, 2015. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

A dancer lets a Russian tourist practice the traditional tannoura dance at a cafe in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 10, 2015. The fallout from the crash of a Russian Metrojet passenger plane in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula could slash tourism income from Sharm al-Sheikh by half, the head of the region's travel agents' association said on Tuesday. Several airlines have suspended flights to the Red Sea resort since the Oct. 31 crash, which investigators and Western governments believe was likely to have been caused by a bomb. Thousands of Russian and British tourists have been flown home. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)

Contestants of a tourism beauty pageant balance eggs on their collarbones as they cruise along the Yellow River in Jiyuan, Henan province, China, June 22, 2015. The contestants believe that if they are slim enough, their collarbones will allow them to balance the eggs securely on their bodies. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A large balloon of a face of “ojisan”, a middle aged man, floats in the sky above the grounds of Nishiki elementary school in Utsunomiya in Tochigi prefecture, 100km north of Tokyo on December 21, 2014. Members of art group “Me”, meaning “eye” in Japanese and the Utsunomiya Museum of Art launched an art installation “The Day an Ojisan's Face Floated in the Sky”, a 15-meter by 10-meter face balloon of the depicted man, who was auditioned in the city, looking down on his home town from the sky. (Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP Photo)

UConn students from Storrs, Conn., Gary Tu, Danny Wang and Victor Zheng, fish at Shenipsit Lake in Tolland, Conn. during sunset on Tuesday, August 19, 2014. (Photo by Jim Michaud/AP Photo/Journal Inquirer)

Models blow kisses backstage at the Red Beard show during MBFWI presented by American Express Fall/Winter 2014 on March 13, 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by S. Alemdar/Getty Images for IMG)

Local villagers fall onto the ground from an ox-cart as they ride to rid evil spirits from their village at Pring Ka-ek village, Cambodi. (Photo by Heng Sinith/AP Photo)