A protester from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) displays a placard from a bathtub as a people looks on during a demonstration to call on the public to eat more vegetables to save water, in Sao Paulo on August 2, 2016. (Photo by Cris Faga via ZUMA Wire)

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 looks out from her stall selling traditional garments and textiles at a market in Ashgabat February 8, 2012. (Photo by Aman Mehinli/Reuters)

A general view shows the part of the skyline of Dubai covered in an early morning fog on October 5, 2015. (Photo by Rene Slama/AFP Photo)

A Santa Claus puppet holding a Christmas tree is pictured against the sun in Berlin November 23, 2014. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

A visitor takes in a view of the downtown district from Twin Peaks on Friday, January 9, 2015, in San Francisco. (Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

A man rows a boat on the Dal Lake as a woman holds an umbrella during snowfall in Srinagar February 19, 2015. (Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)