Young couple in BDSM action on the leather sofa. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)

A woman falls while slipping on ice during freezing rain on Roosevelt Island, a borough of Manhattan, in New York January 5, 2014. New York City was hit on Friday by the first severe winter storm of 2014 and was still in the grip of sub-freezing weather on Sunday morning. The woman got up and walked away from the fall. (Photo by Zoran Milich/Reuters)

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 pile of destroyed cars of teachers sits outside Briarwood elementary school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma May 22, 2013. Rescue workers with sniffer dogs picked through the ruins on Wednesday to ensure no survivors remained buried after a deadly tornado left thousands homeless and trying to salvage what was left of their belongings. Curvature of horizon in the photo is due to an ultra-wide angle lens. (Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters)

People look at a dead pilot whale on a beach in Panadura on November 3, 2020. Rescuers and volunteers were racing since November 2 to save about 100 pilot whales stranded on Sri Lanka's western coast in the island nation's biggest-ever mass beaching. (Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP Photo)

A migrant worker wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walks up to a pedestrian bridge in Beijing, Sunday, December 6, 2020. Provincial governments across China are placing orders for experimental, domestically made coronavirus vaccines, though health officials have yet to say how well they work or how they may reach the country's 1.4 billion people. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

(L-R) Dustin Poirier punches Conor McGregor of Ireland in a lightweight fight during the UFC 257 event inside Etihad Arena on UFC Fight Island on January 23, 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

A model presents a creation from Dominnico's Autumn – Winter 2020 / 2021 collection during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Madrid on January 31, 2020. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP Photo)