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.

A masked reveller parades through the streets on the first day of the carnival season in Lucerne, Switzerland, 12 February 2015. In the background the well known Kappellbruecke bridge. (Photo by Alexandra Wey/EPA)

Nick Franklin, in action during the FMX competition at the 23rd edition of Free4Style this Saturday, July 2, 2016 in Estavayer-le-Lac,Switzerland. (Photo by Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone/APA)

“If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it”. – Herodotus. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. – Plato. Photo: Mandalay, Burma. (Photo by Steve McCurry)

Boys play with a drainage culvert used for flood control in Las Pinas, Metro Manila February 28, 2016. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

A group of dust covered child labourers gather for a portrait in the brick kiln in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, 22 February 2015. Bleak photos identify the children working their fingers to the bone in Nepalís brick kilns. Photographer Jan Mˆller Hansen documented the conditions of the brick kilns in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal between 2013 and 2016 while he lived and worked in the area. Jan estimates between 150,000 and 175,000 people are employed in the 200 brick kilns littering the Kathmandu Valley. (Photo by Jan Moeller Hansen/Barcroft Images)

Workers pull apart a house in Khandyga, Russia, on February 2, 2018. The shifting ground caused by the uneven thawing of permafrost each summer causes buildings like this Soviet-era apartment house to sag and collapse. (Photo by Amos Chapple/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

These heartbreaking photo show a confused family of elephants attempting to navigate a railway line built straight through their habitat on October 16, 2012. Taken by Biplab Hazra in Bishnupur, India, the images show the extreme lengths the inhabitants of the town go to to deter elephants from damaging their crops and property. As the images show, villagers often resort to extreme tactics in an effort to drive the elephants out with one shocking photograph revealing firebombs being launched at a mother and calf as they cross the road. Elephants encroaching out of their habitats is an increasingly common occurrence with deforestation in much of India. (Photo by Biplab Hazra/Caters News Agency)