A woman wearing a face mask has her hair curled by a special equipment at a beauty salon in Bangkok on July 12, 2020. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Michael Cimino, Amanda Diaz and Xochitl Gomez attend the world premiere of “The Flash”, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2023. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

Thailand's Lac Somruedee Pruepruk balances the ball during the sepak takraw women's match against Malaysia at the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Hanoi on May 17, 2022. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)

Ireland fans Frankie McCabe, Evie Mooney, Penny McCabe, Brooke Kelleher, Seth Mooney and Blake Kelleher watch the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup Group B Australia vs Republic of Ireland match at the watch party in Ringsend, Ireland on July 20, 2023. (Photo by Tom Maher/Inpho)

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.

“Horst Ludwig Wessel (October 9, 1907 – February 23, 1930) was a German Nazi activist who was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1930. He was the author of the lyrics to the song “Die Fahne hoch” (“The Flag On High”), usually known as Horst-Wessel-Lied (“The Horst Wessel Song”), which became the Nazi Party anthem and, de facto, Germany's co-national anthem from 1933 to 1945”. – Wikipedia

Photo: German Nazi activist Horst Wessel (left) at the head of a parade of S.A. stormtroopers, or “brownshirts”, in Nuremberg, Germany, 1929. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Actress Lily Collins is seen filming on set of series 2 of “Emily In Paris” on May 4, 2021 in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/GC Images)

In this image released on December 09, English model Leomie Anderson and English model and actress Jourdan Dunn attend the 2020 MOBO Awards held at Exhibition London on December 07, 2020 in London, England. The MOBO Awards will be live-streamed on YouTube at 7pm and broadcast on BBC One at 10.45pm. (Photo by Michael Tubes/MOBO Organisation/Rex Features/Shutterstock)