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.

38 year old Prabhat Sinha, from Assam, carries a load of coal weighing 60kg's, supported by a head-strap, as he ascends the staircase of a coal mine on April 16, 2011 near the village of Khliehriat, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

David Jackson (C), who voted for Donald Trump, has a discussion with Ryan Graves (L) and Anna Kaminski (R) visiting from Oamaha, Nebraska during a rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., November 12, 2016. (Photo by Clay Lomneth/Reuters)

Firefighting teams try to extinguish an oil fire November 27, 2016 as smoke billows from one of the remaining oil wells set ablaze by ISIL in their retreat from Qayyarah at the start of the Mosul offensive which began more than a month prior. (Photo by Byron Smith/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Riot police stand guard behind a fire as refinery workers hold a blockade of the oil depot of Douchy-Les-Mines to protest against the government's proposed labour reforms, on May 25, 2016. Refinery workers stepped up strikes that threaten to paralyse France weeks ahead of the Euro 2016 tournament as the government moved to break their blockades, escalating a three-month tug-of-war over labour reforms. (Photo by François L.O./AFP Photo)

Aerobatic pilot Sean D. Tucker flies in the two-seat Oracle Extra airplane over downtown Chicago skyline, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Tucker will perform before the start of of the America's Cup World Series racing on Saturday and Sunday. (Photo by Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo)

A dog wears fake eyes while riding a motorcycle in Samut Sakhon, Thailand June 23, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Chacha, the male chimp, screams at a worker in Sendai, northern Japan, Thursday, April 14, 2016 after fleeing from a zoo. The chimpangzee tried desperately to avoid being captured by climbing an electric pole. Chacha was on the loose nearly two hours Thursday after it disappeared from the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai, the city that's hosting finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations in May. (Photo by Kyodo News via AP Photo)