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 boy sits in a canoe in front of a shed built on a raft in the Makoko fishing community on the Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria February 29, 2016. In Makoko, a sprawling slum of Nigeria's megacity Lagos, a floating school capable of holding up to a hundred pupils has since November brought free education to the waterways known as the Venice of Lagos. It offers the chance of social mobility for youngsters who, like most of the city's 21 million inhabitants, lack a reliable electricity and water supply and whose water-based way of life is threatened by climate change as well as rapid urbanisation. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Sarah Bui poses for photographer, Brian Le around blossoming cherry trees, near the Tidal Basin on Thursday March 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

A couple sits on a swing during stormy weather along a beach by the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza City on December 8, 2021. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP Photo)

A woman with disability communicates with sign language as they sit and demonstrate with Disability Activists Forum demanding their rights from the Bengal Government, during the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in Kolkata, Eastern India, 03 December 2021. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is annually observed on 03 December with an objective to promote an awareness of disability issues, the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities and integration of persons with disabilities in the mainstream of each aspect of the social, political, economic and cultural status of their communities. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA/EFE)

In this Thursday, May 8, 2014 photo, guests look down from the Tilt!, a new tourist attraction that provides guests a unique view of the downtown area from the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building, after it was unveiled in Chicago. People hold onto handrails as the glass and steel facade tilts forward 30 degrees. (Photo by Ashlee Rezin/AP Photo/Sun-Times Media)

President Joe Biden holds a baby as he visits a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Church of the Holy Communion Tuesday, June 21, 2022, in Washington. (Photo by Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

The Etam models perform on catwalk during ETAM Show at Flagship Hausmann near Opera in Paris, France on September 29, 2020. (Photo by J.P. Pariente/SIPA Press)