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.

ATTENTION PLEASE! This publication is NOT about cute animals! This is a compilation of photographs of DIFFERENT content! Some photos may SHOCK YOU.

Photo: An eleven-week-old lion cub growls as she plays with a stuffed toy at the San Francisco Zoo April 25, 2003 in San Francisco, California. The cub's mother, Kita, died two days after giving birth to her and her brother. Zookeepers have hand fed and cared for the two surviving cubs around the clock since their mother died. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A mother bear takes a dip in the water to cool off in the warm summer sun but refuses to leave her three youngsters behind – so they climb aboard her back. (Photo by Jon Langeland/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Karis, a one month old lion cub being weighed at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling, Scotland, Thursday October 10, 2013. Weighing in at 5kg, the cub will stay with her mother, Teekay until she is 12 weeks old before they are returned to the pride. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/AP Photo/PA Wire)

A six-day-old hippopotamus is pictured next to his mother, Kara, aged 21, on September 12, 2012 at “Planet sauvage” (“Wild planet”) Zoo in Port-Saint-Pere, western France. The birth, a rare event for this species in captivity, occured on September 7, 2012 in the Zoo. (Photo by Frank Perry/AFP Photo)

Ma Jiaqi, 5, and her mother arrive at Beijing Railway Station for their train to Changchun of Jilin province, in Beijing, China, January 25, 2016. According to traffic police, over 2.9 billion trips will be made around China during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which started on January 24. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

Aimee, 19, who has Down syndrome, has make-up applied by her mother before a presentation in Monterrey, Mexico, in this picture taken April 9, 2016. The association “Abrazame con Discapacidad” (“Embrace me with Disabilities”) teaches folk dance to low-income people with Down syndrome and manages presentations at public events where they receive a payment, as part of a therapy that helps improve their motor system, learning and self-esteem, the association said. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)