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.

Female labourers wearing helmets take a break from laying underground electricity cables in Ahmedabad, India, March 7, 2016. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

The symbol for “One Orlando” is spelled out at a makeshift memorial at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando, Fla., Saturday, June 18, 2016. Nearby, visitors lit candles and prayed at a larger memorial, at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, to mourn the victims of the Pulse massacre. (Photo by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP Photo)

A nun checks her mobile phone as she lies near a victim laid on a ladder following an earthquake in Amatrice Italy, Wednesday, August 24, 2016. The magnitude 6 quake struck at 3:36 a.m. (01:36 GMT) and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome where residents of the capital felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks. (Photo by Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP Photo)

Law enforcement officers stand, with some turning their backs, as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks on a monitor outside the funeral for NYPD officer Wenjian Liu in the Brooklyn borough of New York January 4, 2015. Tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from across the country gathered on Sunday for the funeral of the second of two New York City policemen killed last month in an ambush that galvanized critics of Mayor de Blasio. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Children displaced as a result of Boko Haram attacks in the northeast region of Nigeria, run at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Yola, Adamawa State January 13, 2015. Boko Haram says it is building an Islamic state that will revive the glory days of northern Nigeria's medieval Muslim empires, but for those in its territory life is a litany of killings, kidnappings, hunger and economic collapse. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

A man dresses as a Minion tries to convince a tourist to have her picture taken with him, in Times Square, in New York, April 7, 2016. The assortment of costumed characters, painted naked women and ticket sellers who make the streets of New York's Times Square their office, catering to tourists, may soon be restricted after a City Council vote Thursday. (Photo by Rickey Rogers/Reuters)

Noriaki Iwashima gestures as he lies in a coffin to try it out during an end-of-life seminar held by Japan's largest retailer Aeon Co in Tokyo October 24, 2014. Funeral arrangements are normally left to those who have been left behind but the latest trend in Japan, which literally translates to “End of life” preparations, is for the ageing to prepare their own funerals and graves before they set off on their journey to the great beyond. With a population that is expected to shrink by nearly 30 million people over the next 50 years, the market for funerals, graves and anything related to the afterlife is still very much alive. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)