Paramilitary policemen take part in a training in Chaohu, Anhui province, China December 28, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Zhang Jinduo's wife tries on a self-made racing car on the outskirts of Shenyang, Liaoning province May 10, 2008. Zhang, the 53-year-old local farmer made the racing car with the help of his son who is a car mechanic. The car is equipped with a rear-mounted motorcycle engine and can achieve 60-80 km per hour, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

British singer and songwriter Charlotte Emma Aitchison aka Charli XCX poses in the green room for a portrait before the Sonos And Pandora Present “An Evening With Charli XCX” event at Sonos Studio on June 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Sonos)

A team from Woody's Ice Cream shop wrangle a large inflatable dinosaur down the street during the Independence Day Parade in Fairfax, Virginia July 4, 2015. Americans marched in star-spangled parades, ran relay races, gathered for fireworks shows and crowned a new world hot dog eating champion as they celebrated Independence Day in traditional style on Saturday. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

This image released by Neon shows Matthew McConaughey in a scene from “The Beach Bum”. (Photo by Atsushi Nishijima/Neon via AP Photo)

A resident of the Goodwin House senior living community, looks on as the DC area motown band “The Tribe” plays a social distance concert in their parking lot in Arlington, Virginia, during the coronavirus pandemic on April 14, 2020. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP Photo)

The finishing touches are made to a giant sculpture on the Hayward Gallery entitled “Urban Fox” and made from straw bales on April 18, 2011 in London, England. The sculpture features in the Southbank Centre's 60th anniversary celebration of the 1951 Festival of Britain. The celebration will feature various cultural and creative events and runs from April 22 until September 4, 2011 at London's Southbank Centre. (Photo by Oli Scarff/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.