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.

Bob Steele, of Jefferson, Texas, positions his bears during The Great Bear Show at the Dubuque (Iowa) County Fair on July 25, 2012. (Photo by Jessica Reilly/Telegraph Herald)

Riot police stand guard behind a fire as refinery workers hold a blockade of the oil depot of Douchy-Les-Mines to protest against the government's proposed labour reforms, on May 25, 2016. Refinery workers stepped up strikes that threaten to paralyse France weeks ahead of the Euro 2016 tournament as the government moved to break their blockades, escalating a three-month tug-of-war over labour reforms. (Photo by François L.O./AFP Photo)

A man works on a small replica of the Iron Man armor next to a homemade replica of the “Hulkbuster” Iron Man armour from the movie “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, at an underground parking lot in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, May 12, 2015. The 3.4-metre-tall replica is made of over 100 fiber-reinforced plastic components. It took Xing and his friends two months to put them together after watching the trailer of the movie in March, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

“The Sunsetter”. An EF-4 tornado rips through the open space of farmland near Rozel, Kansas. This tornado moves slowly but powerful towards the setting sun an gets its beautiful color right before sunset. Storm Chasers are spotting on the left side. Photo location: Rozel, Kansas. (Photo and caption by Dennis Oswald/National Geographic Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A plastinated body presented as a pole vaulter is exhibited at the Menschen Museum, Museum of Humans, in Berlin, August 29, 2016. The museum was caught up in a legal dispute with the district office of Berlin-Mitte for years before it was able to meet the requirements made by the court. (Photo by Sophia Kembowski/DPA Photo via Newscom)

A ship builder walks past a section of the Oasis Class 3 cruise ship at the STX Les Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire, western France, February 17, 2015. The Oasis-class III vessel is scheduled for delivery in mid-2016. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

In this February 2, 2015 photo, tourists jump as they pose for a picture, after disembarking from the Ocean Nova cruise ship, on King George Island, Antarctica. This tourist season, which runs November through March, more than 37,000 visitors are expected to walk on the coldest continent on Earth, about 10 percent more than the year before. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)