In this December 8, 2020 file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro playfully sprays a journalist with disinfectant as he exits a press conference at Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Attorneys for the cash-strapped government blame the impact of U.S. sanctions for its inability to make an initial $18 million down payment to the United Nations for doses of the U.N.-supplied vaccines, whose deadline has already passed. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo/File)

East Berliners crossing into the West Berlin on November 11, 1989 at the Potsdamer Platz, Germany. (Photo by Kai Wiedenhoefer)

Padaung ethnic women arrive to listen to the speech of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (not in picture), Chairwoman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, during Suu Kyi's first official election campaign at Demoso township of Kayah State, eastern Myanmar, 10 September 2015. Suu Kyi is on a three-day visit to Kayah State near the Thai-Myanmar border, as part of her first official election campaign. Myanmar political parties and candidates started their campaigns on 08 September ahead of the upcoming general election, which will be held on 08 November 2015. (Photo by Lynn Bo Bo/EPA)

A performer dances at a housing exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, September 27, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Tribal artists and supporters from the southern Indian state of Karnataka dance outside the residence of Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi during her birthday celebrations in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, December 9, 2015. The Italian-born Gandhi is the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and has led the Congress party since 1998. (Photo by Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)

Residents with faces covered in ash ride on a motorcycle as Mount Sinabung volcano erupts, in Sukandebi village in Karo Regency, Indonesia's North Sumatra province, Indonesia June 13, 2015, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. (Photo by Rony Muharrman/Reuters/Antara Foto)

People look at revellers (L) waiting to take part in a LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) pride parade to mark Gaijatra Festival, also known as the festival of cows, in Kathmandu, Nepal, August 30, 2015. Hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites paraded through Nepal's capital Sunday to demand that rights for sexual minorities be included in the country's new constitution that is being finalized. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

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.