Couples take part in a Valentine's Day attempt to break the record for the world's largest simultaneous gay kiss on February 14, 2004 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Bikini Contest in Daytona Beach, Florida’s Atlantic coast, circa 1980s. (Photo by Evan Hurd/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

Palestinian female Hamas security officers demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony in the northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, April 2, 2014. 1200 officers graduated from advanced training courses that lasted one year in Gaza police academy of Hamas. (Photo by Adel Hana/AP 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.

Attendees dressed as Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn arrive for opening day of the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, United States July 21, 2016. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

Members of the Russian Red Army Choir perform at Water Front Theatre in Beirut September 13, 2014. (Photo by Jamal Saidi/Reuters)

A woman offers prayers by a road as a rickshaw puller transports passengers in Kolkata October 28, 2014. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Azat Shajbyrov reacts with a baby falcon on his head in a village of Bokonbaevo, Issyk-Kul area (270 km from Bishkek), Kyrgyzstan, 22 June 2016, as he dreams of continuing a family tradition of golden eagle hunting. Eagle and falcon hunting is an old Kyrgyz tradition. With their birds, Kyrgyz berkutchy hunt in the mountains and participate in the hunting festival “Salburun”. (Photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA)