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 man demonstrates outside Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's news conference at Trump Tower in New York, U.S., May 31, 2016. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

A woman tour skates on the frozen lake of Orlangen, south of Stockholm, Sweden, on December 23, 2016. Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice particularly popular in the Nordic countries. (Photo by Tobias Roestlund/AFP Photo/TT News Agency)

Barny, the Harveys Brewery dog has a sniff of a pint of beer at the Great British Beer Festival, at Olympia in London, Tuesday, August 11, 2015. The five day event is organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), with over 900 real ales, ciders, perries and international beers on offer. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

An employee feeds a one-week-old coati cub with a bottle of milk at the Royev Ruchey zoo in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, October 10, 2014. The mother of three cubs refused to nurse them, according to zoo employees. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Iranian Shiite Muslim women gather around a bonfire after rubbing mud on their body during the “Kharrah Mali” (Mud Rubbing) ritual to mark the Ashura religious ceremony in the city of Khorramabad, some 470 kms southwest of Tehran, early in the morning on October 1, 2017. “Khrreh Mali” or “Mud Rubbing” is a ritual that is held in the city of Khorramabad every year to commemorate the seventh century slaying of Prophet Mohammed' s grandson Imam Hussein, in which Iranian men roll over in mud and dry themselves by gathering around the bonfires before flagellating themselves. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

Players of the USA celebrate in the dressing room following their team's victory in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup France Final match between The United States of America and The Netherlands at Stade de Lyon on July 07, 2019 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Maddie Meyer – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Couples take part in a Valentine's Day attempt to break the record for the world's largest simultaneous gay kiss on February 14, 2004 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)