Kuwaitis play in front of kites at for Kuwaiti al-Farsi Kites team, Kuwaiti desert, 50 kilometers south of Kuwait City, 06 January 2017 (Issued 07 January 2017). (Photo by Raed Qutena/EPA)

Carlos Melendez prepares to feed his pet squirrel “Colita” in downtown San Salvador January 29, 2015. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

Bikini Contest in Daytona Beach, Florida’s Atlantic coast, circa 1980s. (Photo by Evan Hurd/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

A chicken seller carries his chickens on his head in the market in Peshawar, Pakistan, August 20, 2015. (Photo by Khuram Parvez/Reuters)

A group of scantily-clad women pose for photographs at the annual Venus erotic trade fair in Berlin, Germany on 12 October 2017. Venus Berlin is among the largest international erotic trade fairs, with more then 250 exhibitions from 40 countries and 30,000 visitors. (Photo by Alamy Live News)

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.

Nepal's Kumari, or living goddess, adjusts her ornament as she watches the Rato Machindranath chariot Festival in Lalitpur, Nepal, Friday, April 24, 2015. Nepal's living goddesses are young pre-pubescent girls considered by devotees to be incarnations of a Hindu goddess. Selected as toddlers, living goddesses usually keep their positions until they reach puberty. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Palestinian female Hamas security officers demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony in the northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, April 2, 2014. 1200 officers graduated from advanced training courses that lasted one year in Gaza police academy of Hamas. (Photo by Adel Hana/AP Photo)