A staff member of a toy store wears a face mask as she invites customers to enter the store, in London, Tuesday, September 22, 2020. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has slammed the brakes on the country's return to offices, saying people should work from home if possible to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Johnson on Tuesday announced a package of new restrictions, including a requirement for pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues in England to close between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

A protester with his face smeared with soot from burning barricades stands in the Musaga neighbourhood of Bujumbura on May 6, 2015. Government and opposition rivals are meeting in Burundi in a bid to end deadly demonstrations against a third term bid by the president, as regional foreign ministers arrived to add pressure. (Photo by Phil Moore/AFP Photo)

UFC women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm and Miesha Tate face off during the UFC 196 weigh ins at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Friday, March 4, 2016. (Photo by L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Sun via AP Photo)

A Hindu holy man with his face smears with ash and vermilion powder adjusts his head gear sitting at the courtyard of the Pashupatinath Temple during Shivaratri festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 4, 2019. Shivaratri, or the night of Shiva, is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of death and destruction. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

A train attendant wearing a protective face mask stands on a train to Wuhan, at the railway station in Beijing, China, 29 March 2020. Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, partly lifted the lockdown allowing people to enter the city after more than two months. Chinese authorities eased the quarantine measures as cases of Covid-19 across China have plummeted, according to Chinese government figures. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA/EFE)

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.

Vehicle lights illuminate a street after a massive blackout, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, September 22, 2016. Puerto Ricans faced another night of darkness Thursday as crews slowly restored electricity a day after a fire at a power plant caused the aging utility grid to fail and blacked out the entire island. (Photo by Carlos Giusti/AP Photo)

The face of a graduating student is displayed on a tablet attached to a robot during a “cyber graduation” ceremony at a school on May 22, 2020 in Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. Robots represented some 179 graduating students of the Senator Rene Cayetano Science and Technology High School during a graduation ceremony that was streamed online, as mass gatherings remain prohibited in the country under the Philippine government's lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The robots were developed by alumni of the school's robotics club, which used tablets to display the faces of the graduating students as they “marched” on stage to receive their diplomas. The Philippines' Department of Health has so far reported 13,434 cases of the coronavirus in the country, with at least 846 recorded fatalities. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)