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.

Kashmiri residents are evacuated in a tractor from their flooded neighborhood in Srinagar, India, Sunday, September 7, 2014. (Photo by Dar Yasin/AP Photo)

Some two thousand runners dressed as Santa Claus make their way through Clapham Common during The London Santa Dash, to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, Britain December 4, 2016. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

People dressed in the historic uniforms of the Imperial Russian army take part in a re-enactment of the 1812 Battle of Berezina, to mark the 204th anniversary of the battle, near the village of Bryli, Belarus, November 27, 2016. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Rescue workers try to help a driver out of his car, after the vehicle was stuck over an alley in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, August 4, 2014. The car rolled off the edge of a road after the driver was late to brake, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A woman collects water from a stream outside the village of Tsemera in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, February 13, 2016. (Photo by Katy Migiro/Reuters)

Nepalese Mahuts with their elephant participate in elephant picnic as a part of the12th Chitawan Elephant Festival at Sauhara, Chitawan, some 154 kilometer from the capital of Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 December 2015. More than 80 elephant with their Mahuts joined the elephant picnic. The five-day festival began on 26 December to spread awareness about wildlife and promote tourism. (Photo by Hemanta Shrestha/EPA)

Priest Sergei Ryzhov conducts a ceremony as a man takes a dip in the freezing waters of Lake Buzim during Orthodox Epiphany celebrations near the village of Sukhobuzimskoye north of Krasnoyarsk, Russia on January 19, 2018. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)