Graduates dance as they take part in a “Last school bell” ceremony at a school in Minsk, Belarus on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/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.

Mel Winnie Harlow poses for photographers before the presentation of Christian Dior's Spring-Summer 2018 ready-to-wear fashion collection in Paris, Tuesday, September 26, 2017. (Photo by Michel Euler/AP Photo)

“Horst Ludwig Wessel (October 9, 1907 – February 23, 1930) was a German Nazi activist who was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1930. He was the author of the lyrics to the song “Die Fahne hoch” (“The Flag On High”), usually known as Horst-Wessel-Lied (“The Horst Wessel Song”), which became the Nazi Party anthem and, de facto, Germany's co-national anthem from 1933 to 1945”. – Wikipedia

Photo: German Nazi activist Horst Wessel (left) at the head of a parade of S.A. stormtroopers, or “brownshirts”, in Nuremberg, Germany, 1929. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Cuban actor Ana de Armas seen attending Bond: No Time To Die – world film premiere afterparties on September 28, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Backgrid USA)

Actress Vanessa Hudgens attends Carolina Herrera SS20 during New York Fashion Week in New York City on September 9, 2019. (Photo by Christopher Peterson/Splash News and Pictures)

Demi Sims her older sisters Chloe and Frankie, cast members of the British television series “The Only Way Is Essex” during filming in Marbella, resort area on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol on September 17, 2019. (Photo by Beretta/Sims/Rex Features/Shutterstock)