Elementary school children play outside their classrooms as mount Sinabung volcano spews thick volcanic ash in the background on February 10, 2017 in Karo, Indonesia. Mount Sinabung is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and last erupted in May 2016, killing seven people. (Photo by Albert Damanik/Barcroft Images)

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 local boy plays football on Iracema Beach on June 11, 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

A female bodybuilder apples oil to another performer backstage before an amateur competition in the Israeli city of Dimona, in this April 3, 2014 file photo. (Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

Ukrainian servicemen sit atop an armored personnel carrier (APC) at a military base in the town of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, December 24, 2014. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Children watch and react as a T-Rex moves and growls in an inter-active display at Field Station Dinosaurs in Secaucus, N.J on May 25, 2012. There will be 31 types of life-sized dinosaurs displayed at the Jurassic expedition that opens Saturday, May 26. (Photo by Mel Evans/Associated Press)

A woman in traditional Malaysian attire welcomes leaders to the official dinner at the venue of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia November 21, 2015. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A man carries a smoke flare as far-right activists march during the Gay Pride parade on June 12, 2016 in Kiev. More than 700 gay rights activists marched through central Kiev on June 12 amid a massive police presence for the third such gay pride event in the ex-Soviet country where homophobia remains widespread. The June 12 march was the first ever gay pride rally to be held in central Kiev, prompting an unprecedented security operation with several thousand police and National Guard officers lining the route during the event, which lasted around 20 minutes. (Photo by Yuriy Kirnichny/AFP Photo)