Yussef Saluta (R), 20, an Israeli Arab soldier from the Desert Reconnaissance battalion takes part in a drill near Kissufim in southern Israel November 29, 2016. A battalion of soldiers crawls across the desert sand with assault rifles cocked. It's a routine exercise, but these are no ordinary troops – they are Arabs who have chosen to fight for the Jewish state. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters) (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

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.

Roof-topping enthusiast Daniel Lau takes a selfie with high-rise buildings down below as he stands on the top of a skyscraper in Hong Kong, China on August 15, 2017. A craze that began in Russia has now taken hold in Hong Kong, one of the world's most vertical cities. Mr Lau said he had been inspired by Russian climbers and that he was unafraid of the vertiginous heights he scales. (Photo by ImagineChina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A cat dressed in a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt takes part in a parade in Kiev, Ukraine on May 28, 2016. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Police detain a demonstrator during an action against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine resumed on Wednesday, with people taking to the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg and other Russian towns despite mass arrests. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Ukrainian Serviceman Oleksii Hodzenko, aka Godzilla, was a civilian journalist. His father, Sergeant chief Dmytro "Godzilla" Godzenko was killed on March 31, 2016 at 6 a.m. in a mortar attack near the village of Zaitsevo near Horlivka in the Donetsk region. Since then Godzilla "junior" has joined the army, at a frontline position held by Ukraine's 503rd Detached Marine Battalion on February 7, 2022 near Verkhnotoretske, Ukraine. Regional tensions remain high as Russia continues to amass soldiers and military equipment along its border with Ukraine, where large swaths of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions are held by Russian-backed separatists. Russia has also moved roughly 30,000 troops into Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north. American and European officials say they do not whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a decision to invade Ukraine, but have issued a series of warnings about the country's assertive military posture. (Photo by Gaelle Girbes/Getty Images)

Bogdana, 17, laughs with her boyfriend, Ivan, 19, in Brovary, Ukraine, Sunday, March 20, 2022. Russian forces pushed deeper into Ukraine's besieged and battered port city of Mariupol on Saturday, where heavy fighting shut down a major steel plant and local authorities pleaded for more Western help. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A soldier of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment falls off a horse during a practice to participate in the state ceremonial surrounding this year's Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Hyde Park in London, Thursday, March 31, 2022. Around 170 horses and personnel of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment left their Hyde Park Barracks to form up and be inspected by the General Officer Commanding the Household Division, Major General Christopher Ghika. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)