In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner holds an amalgam of mercury and gold he mined after working a 28-hour shift at an illegal gold mining process, in La Pampa, in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Thousands of artisanal gold miners sweat through the long shifts and endure, for a few grams of gold, the perils of collapsing earth, limb-crushing machinery and the toxic mercury used to bind gold flecks. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

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.

An enterprising Chinese man pulls a bicycle cart packed high with bags of recyclable plastic containers in Shanghai July 25, 2002. The man sells each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plastic for 0.08 yuan ($.01) to a nearby depot. (Photo by Claro Cortes IV/Reuters)

A biker shows his 12-year-old cat “Chiquinho” – which always rides with him on his motorbike – in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 19, 2016. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

A string is used to ensure that the skirts of female members of the honour guard are in the same height from the ground as they prepare for a welcoming ceremony for Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, July 5, 2016. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

Friends outside the convention center during opening day of the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, United States July 21, 2016. (Photo by WENN/SIPA Press)

Kylie Jenner shows off a lot of cleavage in these new photos added to her Snapchat account on Thursday, August 25, 2016. Something that a lot of the 19-year-old reality star's fans pointed out was that her breasts looked larger than normal and she took to Twitter to explain why. Kylie said that she has “never” gotten her breasts done and that they look large because “it's that time of the month”. She even offered to let a fan feel them to prove that they are real! “They will deflate soon. And it will be a sad sad day”, Kylie added. (Photo by Scope Features)

Expedition 44 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly seen inside the Cupola, a special module which provides a 360-degree viewing of the Earth and the International Space Station. Kelly is one of two crew members spending an entire year in space. (Photo by Scott Kelly/NASA)