A view of one of the dioramas contained inside iron boxes as part of the “S.A.C.R.E.D” installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei during a media preview at the cathedral in Cuenca, Spain, July 21, 2016. Ai Weiwei has reproduced scenes of his incarceration for a new art installation, a series of almost life-size dioramas – encased in steel boxes – showing his life in jail. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

An Aden civilian crouching in terror as British soldiers threaten him during Arabian demonstrations in Crater. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images). 1967

Model Adriana Lima attends Madonna presents An Evening of Music, Art, Mischief and Performance to benefit Raising Malawi at Faena Forum on December 2, 2016 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Raising Malawi)

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.

In this handout photo provided by Warner Brothers Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, Tom Cruise plays Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cage, a soldier who replays his last day while trying to fight aliens, in director Doug Liman's “All You Need Is Kill”. The film is set to premiere on March 14, 2014. (Photo by David James/Warner Brothers Pictures)

Derek Hough, right, and Julianne Hough, co-winners of the award fo rOutstanding Choreography for “Dancing with the Stars”, pose in the press room at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Saturday, September 12, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Photo)

A U.S. Army B-24 Liberator Bomber is hailed by a ground crewman as it takes off over a line of shark- nosed fighter planes at an advanced base in China on a mission on October 10, 1943, to bomb Japanese installations. (Photo by AP Photo)

Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, rescue a boy from the rubble following a reported barrel bomb attack on the Bab al- Nairab neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on November 24, 2016. (Photo by Ameer Alhalbi/AFP Photo)