Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, play as they soak in a hot spring in Jigokudani valley in Nagano Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo Saturday, March 6, 2021. (Photo by Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo)

An adult chimp plays with a young chimp at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La., Monday, February 18, 2013. One hundred and eleven chimpanzees will be coming from a south Louisiana laboratory to Chimp Haven, the national sanctuary for chimpanzees retired from federal research. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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.

Chinese women ride a bicycle together on a street September 10, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A Poison Ivy and Boba Fet (Star Wars) cosplayer during the MCM Birmingham Comic Con at NEC Arena on March 18, 2017 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Ollie Millington/Getty Images)

A model presents a creation by Versace from the Spring/Summer 2023 collection during the Milan Fashion Week, in Milan, Italy, 23 September 2022. The Milano Fashion Week Women's runs from 20 to 26 September. (Photo by Mourad Balti Touati/EPA/EFE)

A baby rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) looks up as it plays with a tiger cub at a zoo in Hefei, Anhui province, August 2, 2012. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)

Bronze whaler shark (Carcharhinus brachyurus), caught in traditional seine net and released by fisherman, Muizenberg beach, Cape Town, South Africa on October 11, 2016. Action shots have captured fishermen trying to free a potentially deadly Bronze Whaler shark who was caught in their nets. The incredible images show the eight-foot-long 500-pound predator lunging its mouth towards the fishermen who are desperately trying to pull it back into the safety of the sea by its tail. Eventually they succeeded. (Photo by Chris and Monique Fallows/NPL)