A young man wears a mask on the right side of his head as he stands on a bridge with the European Central Bank at left in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, October 29, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Participants with the word “Harta” on their bodies, link arms as they mark International Women's Day at Avenida 18 de Julio in downtown Montevideo, Uruguay March 8, 2021. The word is a term to say exhausted or “had enough” but used by women. (Photo by Mariana Greif/Reuters)

Models present creations by designer Guo Pei as part of her Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2019/20 collection show in Paris, France, July 3, 2019. (Photo by Regis Duvignau/Reuters)

Nepalese army personnel pay tributes before the body of a person who died of COVID-19 before cremating the same in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, August 17, 2020. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Partygoers in United Kingdom flocked to bars and clubs across the nation on Friday as they drunk in the 34C scorcher. Revellers were pictured in Leeds on June 17, 2022 necking drinks and going wild as the sun set on the hottest day of the year so far. (Photo by Nb press ltd)

Victoria and Damiano, of Italian glam rock band Maneskin, arrive at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., August 28, 2022. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Customers try out the the new iPad2 shortly after it went on sale at the Fifth Avenue Apple store March 11, 2011 in New York City. The iPad 2 became available at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time for online purchase and at 5:00 p.m. today in over 10,000 retail locations.

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.