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 Russian prisoner eating bread. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Finland, circa 1940

Soldiers of the 70th division of the American 7th Army hold up a Nazi flag and a portrait of Adolf Hitler, taken during the World War II capture of Saarbrucken. (Photo by Horace Abrahams/Keystone/Getty Images). 22nd March 1945

“The Spanish Civil War (The Crusade among Nationalists, Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans) was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. An estimated total of 500,000 people lost their lives as a consequence of the War”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Women were among the Republican combatants during the Spanish Civil War. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). 1936

Pakistani laborers transport the front portion of a vehicle using a handcart at a road in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, August 3, 2015. (Photo by Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

An Aden civilian crouching in terror as British soldiers threaten him during Arabian demonstrations in Crater. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images). 1967

Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi attends a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale Palace on June 10, 2009 in Rome, Italy. Colonel Gaddafi is in Rome to attend a meeting of G8 Development Ministers. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images). ROME – JUNE 10

Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the wall enclosing the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry after he cut off a part of his earlobe during his protest action titled “Segregation” in Moscow October 19, 2014. Pavlensky protested against the usage of forensic psychiatry for politically motivated purposes. He cut off his earlobe to demonstrate how authorities could “cut off” an unwanted individual from society by using psychiatric and medical diagnosis to forcefully send a person to a penitentiary hospital, according to Pavlensky. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)