A portrait of French WWI soldier Edouard Marius Ivaldi is displayed on a tablet, in this illustration picture, alongside his battlefield grave memorial, a wooden cross with a battlefield helmet in Champagne, eastern France, November 3, 2015. (Photo by Charles Platiau/Reuters)

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 Pakistani monkey handler Naseer Khan plays flute to attract passers by for a monkey show to earn his living in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, September 7, 2015. (Photo by B. K. Bangash/AP Photo)

“Environmental Migrants: The Last Illusion” by photographer Alessandro Grassani, documents the life of people in Kenya, Mongolia and Bangladesh who migrate to escape environmental stresses to the city of their own countries in hopes for a better life. Here: Asia, Mongolia, March 27, 2011. A view of Ulaan Baator over the shoulder of a slumbering drunk. Alcoholism is a huge problem in the city, home to almost half of Mongolia's people. The capital's population has doubled in the past two years. High levels of unemployment and poverty await herders who abandon rural areas and arrive in the city, illiterate and untrained in any skills necessary for urban jobs. (Photo by Alessandro Grassani)

In this 1997 photo released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a seal hunter, right, threatens a cameraman with a knife during the filming of a seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. “Huntwatch”, a documentary by the organization about the fight to end commercial seal hunts, premieres in September 2016 on Discovery. The producers say it includes grainy but powerful archive footage that had languished in the basement of the group’s headquarters on Cape Cod for nearly five decades. (Photo by Richard Sobol/IFAW via AP Photo)

In this Wednesday, January 23, 2019, an anti-government protester covers her face with a Venezuelan flag, and uses toothpaste around her eyes to help lessen the effect of tear gas, during clashes with security forces after a rally demanding the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela. The head of Venezuela's opposition-run congress declared himself interim president at the rally, until new elections can be called. (Photo by Fernando Llano/AP Photo)

Masked Palestinian demonstrators hide behind a metal plate during clashes with Israeli soldiers on March 12, 2018 in the West Bank town of Birzeit, near Ramallah, following a protest by students of the Birzeit University against the arrest of the the head of Palestinian student council by an Israeli undercover commando. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP Photo)

Sepak Takraw, ISTAF Super Series Finals Thailand 2014/2015, Nakhon Pathom Municipal Gymnasium, Huyjorake Maung, Nakonprathom, Thailand on October 20, 2015: Thailand's Sudaporn Palang in action during the group stage. (Photo by Asia Sports Ventures/Action Images via Reuters)