A sun bear reacts to triple-digit temperatures at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, where the temperature reached 103 degrees Fahrenheit on July 6, 2012. (Photo by Nati Harnik/Associated Press)

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.

Venezuela's food shortages, inflation and crumbling medical sector have become such a source of anguish that a growing number of young women are reluctantly opting for sterilizations rather than face the hardship of pregnancy and child-rearing. Traditional contraceptives like condoms or birth control pills have virtually vanished from store shelves, pushing women towards the hard-to-reverse surgery. While no recent national statistics on sterilizations are available, doctors and health workers say demand for the procedure is growing. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

A Buddhist monk catches an aerial view of Kathmandu from the damaged Swayambhunath Stupa premises in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, May 6, 2015. The April 25 earthquake killed thousands and injured many more as it flattened mountain villages and destroyed buildings and archaeological sites in Kathmandu. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

People who fled the violence from Islamic State-controlled northern Syrian town of al-Bab arrive in the rebel-held outskirts of the town, Syria February 3, 2017. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

People wait in line to pay their last respects to the late Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, Monday, November 28, 2016. Cuba's government has declared nine days of national mourning following Castro's death on Nov. 25. (Photo by Fernando Medina/AP Photo)

Tibetan monks dressed as demons attend the Beating Ghost festival at the Yonghe Temple, also known as the Lama Temple, in Beijing on March 19, 2015. The Beating Ghost festival, or Da Gui festival in Chinese, is an important ritual of Tibetan Buddhism and is believed to expel evil spirits and shake off troubles. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

Freshmen in Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management head bottles of mineral water for upright stand during military training on September 17, 2015 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China. More than 6,800 freshmen in the school are required to take part in the military training. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)