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.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the father of the world's most popular assault rifle, is handed an AK-74 November 23, 2002 in Izhevsk,1000 East km. from Moscow. November 23 marked the 55th anniversary of the release of the first Kalashnikov gun. According to the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategic and Technologies some 70 million to 100 million Kalashnikovs have been built worldwide since 1947, compared about 7 million to Kalashnikov's Western rival the M-16 assault rifles. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

Photo taken on March 30, 2021 shows visitors enjoying pear flowers and orchid in full bloom at Santaishan Forest Park in Suqian, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Photo by Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Ukrainians attend an open military training for civilians on a training range in Kiev, Ukraine, 06 February 2022. According to a survey conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from December 2021, 50.2 percent of Ukrainians said they would resist in case of a Russian military intervention into their city, town or village. Every third respondent to the poll said they were ready to engage in armed resistance, and 21.7 percent said they were ready to participate in civil resistance actions. (Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

American model Bella Hadid poses as she arrives for the screening of the film “Tre Piani” (Three Floors) at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on July 11, 2021. (Photo by Reinhard Krause/Reuters)

A model poses backstage ahead of the Romance Was Born show during Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2022 Resort '23 Collections at Ken Done Gallery, The Rocks on May 09, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Spain's Lidia Rodriguez, Spain's Marta Garcia and Spain's Raquel Roy compete in the Kata team female final during the 24th Karate World Championships at the WiZink center in Madrid on November 11, 2018. (Photo by Javier Soriano/AFP Photo)

Bella Hadid arrives at a Dior dinner party during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival at on May 15, 2019 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pierre Suu/GC Images)