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.

Female Naval Academy plebes perform push ups with a twelve foot log on top of them during the annual Sea Trials May 17, 2016 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The Naval Academy freshman class endures 14 hours of rigorous physical and mental challenges during the annual Sea Trials training exercise as part of the culmination of their freshman year at the academy. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

An indigenous woman holds her child while trying to resist the advance of Amazonas state policemen who were expelling the woman and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a privately-owned tract of land on the outskirts of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, in this March 11, 2008 file photo. (Photo by Luiz Vasconcelos-A Critica/Reuters/AE)

A woman squeezes between two public buses in downtown Lima, March 17, 2014. Bogota and two other Latin American capitals – Mexico City, and Lima in Peru – were named as the three capitals with the least safe transport systems for women in the Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of more than 6,550 women and gender and city planning experts. Women in Latin America say they face a wide range of daily threats on public transport, and not enough is done to ensure their safety. (Photo by Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)

“Jimi Hendrix made it shriek. Buddy Holly made it swing. Stevie Ray Vaughn made it snarl. Some of the most legendary guitarists in music history have elicited unforgettable sounds from the Fender Stratocaster, the distinctive double-cutaway guitar born in a small Fullerton, Calif., workshop 60 years ago this month”. – Associated Press. Photo: A finished Fender Stratocaster is adjusted by Kenneth Maas in the Fender Custom Shop in Corona, Calif. on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. Leo Fender developed the instrument in a small workshop in Fullerton, Calif. six decades ago. (Photo by Matt York/AP Photo)

In this file photo dated April 20, 1964, James Bond, alias, Sean Connery, finds himself in a sticky situation with actress Shirley Eaton at Pinewood Studios, near London. Miss Eaton was given a liberal coating of gold paint for a scene in the latest Bond thriller “Goldfinger”, with unidentified woman at top. Scottish actor Sean Connery, considered by many to have been the best James Bond, has died aged 90, according to an announcement from his family. (Photo by Victor Boynton/AP Photo)

Demonstrators protest against police shootings and racial injustice in New York City, U.S., April 16, 2021. (Photo by David “Dee” Delgado/Reuters)

An a music therapist plays harp during treatment of patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Havelhoehe community hospital in Berlin, Germany, December 6, 2021. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)