A devotee takes a holy bath at the Balaju Baise Dhara (22 water spouts) during the Baishak Asnan festival in Kathmandu April 4, 2015. Devotees believe that the water from these stone spouts, which is collected from the catchment area of the Nagarjun forest behind the spouts, will cure pains and skin diseases. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A girl gets her hands decorated with traditional henna patterns at a roadside stall ahead of Eid-al Fitr to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Karachi, Pakistan, July 17, 2015. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Armed Yemeni children sit in the back of a pick up truck with fighters loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in the Dar saad neighbourhood of the southern Yemeni city of Aden on May 10, 2015, as they continue to battle Shiite Huthi rebels. (Photo by Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP 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.

A youth stands near a cow and a sheep that were sacrified in the village of Miratovc for the celebration of Eid-al-Adha, near the town of Presevo, southern Serbia September 24, 2015. Muslims across the world celebrate the annual festival of Eid al-Adha or the Feast of the Sacrifice. (Photo by Hazir Reka/Reuters)

A performer takes part in the opening of the Temple Fair, part of Chinese New Year celebrations at Ditan Park, also known as the Temple of Earth, in Beijing, February 18, 2015. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A man holds onto a tree by the seashore (possibly along the Shore Parkway Greenway) against severe winds during Hurricane Carol's assault on the Northeastern seaboard, Brooklyn, New York, August 31, 1954. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A man yells for help minutes after a Serb shell hit a crowded pedestrian walkway in Sarajevo, May 1993. Radovan Karadzic, a 70-year-old former psychiatrist, still in robust health, is the most senior political figure to be convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He was found guilty of 10 out of 11 charges. He was acquitted of a second count of genocide in Bosnian towns. (Photo by Reuters)