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 woman collects lotus flowers at a lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, 20 June 2018. Lotus flowers, that bloom every June, are collected by Vietnamese people for their inner parts to be mixed with tea for fragrance. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA/EFE)

A man sells eels caught for a meal amid a lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, in a slum area of Yangon, Myanmar, October 21, 2020. (Photo by Shwe Paw Mya Tin/Reuters)

Residents display scarecrows with an NHS theme outside their homes in Greenfield for the annual scarecrow parade on April 09, 2020 in Manchester, United Kingdom. There have been around 60,000 reported cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the United Kingdom and 7,000 deaths. The country is in its third week of lockdown measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

A woman is arrested during a mass gathering protest organised by the group called “UK Freedom Movement”, in Hyde Park in London as the country is in lockdown to help stop the spread of coronavirus, Saturday, May 16, 2020. The group claims that the coronavirus lockdown is illegal. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

A woman makes use of a still day on Inle Lake in Burma on January 16, 2020 by drying newly-dyed threads made out of lotus stems. (Photo by Sabina Akter/Solent News)

Cast member Bryce Dallas Howard poses at the premiere of the movie “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2018. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

A man lies in the sea grass at a beach on July 18, 2016 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China. The enteromorpha prolifera spread on the beaches in Qingdao and were under clearing. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)