People brave the wind on the waterfront of Victoria Habour as Typhoon Haima approaches Hong Kong, Friday, October 21, 2016. Typhoon Haima churned toward southern China on Friday after smashing into the northern Philippines with ferocious wind and rain, triggering flooding, landslides and power outages. (Photo by Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

Revelers of the “Societe des Champs Elysee” launch fireworks before boarding the Rampart-St. Claude street car line, which just opened last fall, to commemorate the official start of Mardi Gras season, in New Orleans, Friday, January 6, 2017. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

People shop at a market ahead of the Lunar New Year in Hong Kong on February 6, 2024 ahead of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon which falls on February 10. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

Cosplayers take a break from the convention to check their phones and get coffee during “Anime Boston 2024” at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 30, 2024. The convention is organized by the New England Anime Society and celebrates all things Japanese animation, comics and popular culture. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)

A giant panda cub falls from the stage while 23 giant pandas born in 2016 seen on a display at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, September 29, 2016. (Photo by Rex Features)

Bigfoot Fastrax crushes cars during the monster truck rally at Anaheim Stadium in 1989 in Anaheim, California. Photo by: Tim Defrisco/Getty Images

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.

Villagers cry for their relatives who were killed in an earthquake during a funeral in Longmen village, in Lushan county in southwest China's Sichuan province, on April 21, 2013. Rescuers and relief teams struggled to rush supplies into the rural hills of the area after an earthquake left at least 180 people dead and more than 11,000 injured. (Photo by Associated Press)