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.

The finishing touches are made to a new wax figure of Theresa May at Madame Tussauds in London, England on November 7, 2017. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Wire)

An opposition fighter from the Failaq al-Rahman brigade fires a heavy machine gun in Jobar, a rebel-held district on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, on March 19, 2017. (Photo by Amer Almohibany/AFP Photo)

Palestinian schoolboys sit in the trunk of a car as they go to school on a rainy day in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 7, 2015. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Men make sweets at a small traditional factory in preparation for Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 21, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

Refugee children play with a stuffed toy at a muddy makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece March 15, 2016. (Photo by Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters)

Portraits single nominee: Dakar fashion, by Finbarr O’Reilly. Curious residents and a street vendor selling material look on as models Diarra Ndiaye, Ndeye Fatou Mbaye and Malezi Sakho wear outfits by the Senegalese designer Adama Paris in the Medina neighbourhood of Senegal’s capital, Dakar. (Photo by Finbarr O’Reilly/World Press Photo 2019)

Supporters of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro take part in a rally in support of the government in Caracas, Venezuela on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)