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.

Members of Chinese Shaolin Temple Warrior Monks perform martial arts during the “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” Gala in Toronto, Canada, on February 27, 2016. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua/Sipa USA)

Two rescued pangolins sit in a basket during a news conference in Bangkok on June 7, 2012. Thai customs rescued 110 pangolins worth about $35,500 that they say were to be sold outside the country as exotic food. The animals, hidden in a pickup truck, were seized at a customs checkpoint in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, south of Bangkok. (Photo by Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press)

Students stand on the roof of a wooden boat as haze blankets the Musi River while they travel to school in Palembang, on Indonesia's Sumatra island, September 10, 2015. Indonesia is investigating 10 firms over worsening forest fires that have created a blanket of smog over Southeast Asia, threatening them with sanctions if they are found responsible, a government minister said on Tuesday. The thick haze from Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan islands has forced the repeated cancellation of flights in the area and pushed air quality to unhealthy levels in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

Ethnic Wa performer dressed as United Wa State Army (UWSA) soldiers perform a traditional dance in Mongmao, Wa territory in northeast Myanmar October 1, 2016. Wa State is an unrecognised state in Myanmar (Burma) and is currently subsumed under the official Wa Special Region 2 of northern Shan State. The Wa were once known as the “Wild Wa” by the British due to their practice of headhunting. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Eleven-year-old Kelen loves to dance in the half-built rooms of the centre in Kabanga Refuge Centre, Tanzania, 2012. The rescue centres protect albino people from the vicious hunters who sell their body parts to witch doctors. Photojournalist Ana Palacios, 43, visited the centre in Tanzania three times between 2012 and 2016 to find out more about the plight of albino people. (Photo by Ana Palacios/Barcroft Images)

Rohingya refugee sisters Nur Kaida (R) and Ruhana hug each other at their shelter at the Palongkhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh December 21, 2017. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Elley Dann indulges in some sunbathing in Primrose Hill, London on June 24, 2020, after the UK officially recorded its warmest day of the year so far when the temperature reached 32.6C (90.7F) at London's Heathrow Airport at 2.46pm. (Photo by Evening Standard/The Sun)