Mermaid Hales Parcells geets children as she performs at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, Va., Monday, April 3, 2017. The Aquarium presents a mermaid show one night each week during the month of April. (Photo by Steve Helber/AP Photo)

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 visitor looks at a creation by Russian artist Irina Nakhova presented at the Russia's pavilion during the 56th International Art Exhibition (Biennale d'Arte) titled “All the Worlds Futures” on May 5, 2015 in Venice. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP Photo)

Actress Kerry Washington, Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals' Woman of the Year, throws wine in the face of an actor playing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Thursday, January 28, 2016, as she is roasted in Cambridge, Mass. (Photo by Elise Amendola/AP Photo)

A building emerges from the early morning fog in Belvedere farm in San Quirico d'Orcia, Tuscany, Italy. The beautiful pictures were taken by Alberto Di Donato who has a huge passion for the Tuscan landscape and is inspired by the Renaissance artists who painted the same landscapes. (Photo by Alberto Di Donato/HotSpotMedia)

Indian Hindu devotees wait to take part in an event to mark Pongal in Mumbai on January 15, 2016. Pongal, which coincides with the Hindu festival Makara Sankranthi, is a thanksgiving and harvest celebrated throughout India and specifically by those from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. (Photo by Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Photo)

This picture taken on December 31, 2017 shows an Indian sadhu preparing food at a camp at Sangam, ahead of the Magh Mela festival, in Allahabad. The Magh Mela, which is known as a mini-Kumbh Mela, is scheduled to start January 2 and continue until February 13 with auspicious bathing dates throughout the 45 day period. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

In this Friday, January 9, 2015 photo, bathhouse worker Omid Riahi, 39, scrubs a man to remove dead skin, at the Ghebleh public bathhouse, in Tehran, Iran. The steamy air and curved tiled walls of Iran's famed public bathhouses, some rinsing and massaging patrons for hundreds of years, slowly may wash away as interest in them wanes. The bathhouses, known as “hammams” in Persian, find themselves in rough financial times as modern conveniences now allow showers and baths in most homes across the Islamic Republic. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)