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 woman and a girl in a school uniform run past a barricade of burning tires during a demonstration against high prices and fuel shortages, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on October 21, 2021. (Photo by Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters)

Kenyan riot police officers raise batons over a man during a demonstration of Kenya's opposition supporters in Nairobi, on May 16, 2016. Opposition protestors led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga gathered outside the Indepedent Electoral and Boundaries Comission building to demand the dismissal of IEBC commissioners, after alleged bias towards the ruling Jubillee Alliance Party. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)

Vendors warm themselves as they light a bonfire at a market during a nationwide power outage, in Muzaffarabad on January 23, 2023. A massive power breakdown in Pakistan on January 23 affected most of the country's more than 220 million people, including in the mega cities of Karachi and Lahore. (Photo by Sajjad Qayyum/AFP Photo)

Lightning strikes above Perch Rock Lighthouse in Merseyside, North West England on August 10, 2020. (Photo by Bav Media/The Sun)

Demonstrators protest during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas on April 19, 2017. Venezuela braced for rival demonstrations Wednesday for and against President Nicolas Maduro, whose push to tighten his grip on power has triggered waves of deadly unrest that have escalated the country' s political and economic crisis. (Photo by Juan Barreto/AFP Photo)

A couple take photographs alongside the National Monument on Calton Hill, Edinburgh on Wednesday January 5, 2022, ahead of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's update to the Scottish Parliament on the Covid-19 situation as the Omicron variant sweeps across the country. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)

Costumed participants are reflected in a woman's sunglasses during the Summer Carnival Street Parade, which travels through the streets of the center of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 27 July 2019. Twenty floats participated in the parade with dance acts and lots of music. (Photo by Marco De Swart/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)