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.

Schoolchildren look at a lifelike animatronics display of a dinosaur at the dinosaur-themed Zoo-rassic Park in Singapore on November 16, 2016. To raise awareness on the sixth mass extinction, the Singapore Zoo and River Safari displayed lifelike dinosaur animatronics where visitors can trail along the Dinosaur Valley which does not involve living animals. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)

British tourists snap a cheeky selfie with a monkey at the Ubud Monkey Forest in Bali, Indonesia, August 4, 2015. George Benton, 22, from Paignton, Devon was visiting the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud, Bali whilst traveling with his girlfriend Chloe when the couple snapped a surprise shot with Balinese long-tailed monkey using a “selfie stick”. “We couldn't believe our luck when we looked back at the photos, he looked straight into the camera!” said George, who went on to reward the cheeky chap with a banana for giving the couple such a memorable photo. (Photo by George Benton/Splash News)

An Indonesian man displays his collection of rings with various gemstones at an exhibition and competition of the best gemstone at a mall in Jakarta on August 6, 2015. The recent fad of collecting rings with precious gemstone or polished gemstone locally called “batu akik” is sweeping across Indonesia, with collectors going for the very rare stones and it's possession many believe will give the owner supernatural power. (Photo by Bay Ismoyo/AFP Photo)

Indian artist Sudarsan Pattnaik works on a sand sculpture depicting drowned Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi at Puri beach, some 65 kilometers away from Bhubaneswar, on September 4, 2015. Charities helping refugees saw a surge in donations on September 4 across Europe as people shocked by the heart-rending images of a drowned Syrian boy on a Turkish beach dug deep to help out. The photos of the lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, lying on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey, have triggered a wave of emotion across the continent, despite deep divisions among European governments on how to deal with the crisis. (Photo by Asit Kumar/AFP Photo)

Aeronautics and Space engineer at France's Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises, or Comex, Arnaud Prost (C) meets with a jogger as he tests on the ground the “Gandolfi 2” underwater training suit for spacewalk, on January 20, 2016 in the calanques region (rocky inlets) of Marseille. The underwater training suit “Gandolfi 2”, developed with the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed for training astronauts underwater to simulate space gravity for the astronaut's extravehicular activities (EVAs). (Photo by Boris Horvat/AFP Photo)

Members of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) demonstrate their skills on motor-bikes during the BSF Golden Jubilee Day celebration in New Delhi on December 1, 2015. (Photo by Money Sharma/AFP Photo)

Debris fly into the air as foreign fishing boats are blown up by Indonesian Navy off Batam Island, Indonesia, Monday, February 22, 2016. Authorities on Monday sank dozens of fishing boats caught operating illegally in Indonesian waters as part of the country's campaign to battle illegal fishing. (Photo by M. Urip/AP Photo)