People watch waves crash over the sea wall in Revere, Massachusetts on January 13, 2024. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is reminding residents of the possibility of flooding in low-lying areas and streets as a third storm in a week batters the state. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)

A protester is covered in red paint during a demonstration against the government of Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha and in support of the release of political prisoners outside Bangkok Remand Prison in Bangkok on October 13, 2021. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP 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.

People sit on the top of a truck heavily piled with corn-stalks plies as they head for Mogadishu from Afgooye on October 19, 2016. At least four police officers were killed on October 18 when a suicide bomb attacker rammed an explosives-packed car into a police station before fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group subsequently stormed the area killing at least 10 people, including soldiers and civilians. (Photo by Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP Photo)

Breitling Wingwalker Freya Paterson, from Liverpool, UK, flies above Kuwait City's iconic Water Towers with pilots David Barrell and Martyn Carrington, on March 6, 2014. The team loop and roll up to 160 mph enduring G-forces of 4-5g. Crowds are expected to line the Kuwaiti coastline to catch a glimpse of the Wingwalking team on Saturday, March 8, 2014, to mark the opening of the first dedicated boutique in the city for the prestigious watch brand. (Photo by Katsuhiko Tokunaga/Breitling)

A person dressed as an astronaut walks past a man stopping traffic on a pedestrian crossing outside the Sydney Exhibition Centre September 13, 2014 where the science-fiction convention called “Oz Comic-Con” is currently being held. The two-day convention showcases “pop culture”, and includes appearances by actors from science-fiction movies and television shows. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada's six-acre sand and soil “facescape” stretches across the JFK Hockey Field on the north side of the Reflecting Pool along the National Mall October 1, 2014 in Washington, DC. Titled “Out of Many, One” and composed of 2,500 tons of sand, 800 tons of top soil and eight miles of string, the piece is the artist's interpreative blending of 30 different men's faces. Rodriguez-Gereda used high-precision global positioning satellites to place 10,000 wood pegs as waypoints for the giant face. The piece will be open to the public beginning October 4 and will eventually be tilled back into the earth. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A resident looks into a newly-built giant trash can, partially buried underground, next to a street in Taiyuan, Shanxi province November 6, 2014. The trash can, which has a diameter of 1.9 meters and a depth of 2.8 meters, could contain approximately 10 cubic metres of garbage. It was built to replace an open-air garbage dump site, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)