Elaine Vandiver shares a moment with a two-year old alpaca as they touch noses as she washes him at her farm at 1560 Stateline Road Monday, May 11, 2015, in Walla Walla, Wash. (Photo by Michael Lopez/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin via AP Photo)

Participants struggle to reach the prizes during a greased-pole climbing competition held as a part of the independence day celebrations in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, August 17, 2014. Indonesia is celebrating its 69th independence from the Dutch colonial rule. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

People fall down as they try to form a human pyramid to break the “Dahi handi”, an earthen pot filled with curd, an integral part of celebrations to mark Janmashtami in Mumbai, India, Monday, August 18, 2014. Hindu devotees take part in the celebration in which an earthen pot is suspended high above the ground and groups of young men and children form a human pyramid to reach the pot and break it. The festival celebrates the birth of Hindu god Lord Krishna, one of the most popular gods in Hinduism. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/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.

A boy looks on as fire fighters try to extinguish the fire at oil wells, were set on fire by Daesh terrorists as they fled after Al Qayyarah town's cleansing from Daesh militants as the operation to retake Iraq's Mosul from Daesh continues, in Al Qayyarah Town of Mosul, Nineveh, Iraq on November 02, 2016. (Photo by Yunus Keles/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

In this picture taken Thursday, August 4, 2016, seal Tristan looks out of a basket while being released into the North Sea together with others at the beach of the island Juist, Germany. He is part of the first group of released seals of the seal breeding station Norddeich this year. (Photo by Carmen Jaspersen/DPA via AP Photo)

2016 Rio Olympics, Weightlifting, Final, Women's 69kg, Riocentro, Pavilion 2, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 10, 2016. Leidy Solis (COL) of Colombia competes. (Photo by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)