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.

Yu Jietao, 26-year-old wood carver, sits in his homemade wooden car along a street in Guangfeng county of Shangrao, Jiangxi province, China February 9, 2015. The car can travel as fast as 30 km (18.6 miles) per hour, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

This photo released by the Cleveland Animal Protective League shows Lurleen, the nursing mother and Noland the puppy snuggling up Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in Cleveland. Lurleen already is caring for four newborn kittens and now is nursing the orphaned week-old pit bull puppy in Cleveland. (Photo by AP Photo/Cleveland Animal Protective League)

Labourers who work nearby nap on a road as cars drive past in Chongqing Municipality, July 23, 2013. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

In an observance of Epiphany, Russian Orthodox believers swim in an icy pond outside Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. (Photo by Olga “Zwezdochka”)

In this Thursday, April 11, 2013 photo, an Afghan woman peers through the the eye slit of her burqa as she waits to try on a new burqa in shop in the old town of Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo)

Flames from the Falls Fire burn on a hillside along South Main Divide Road in the Cleveland National Forest as firefighters drive through the area on Monday, August 5, 2013. (Photo by Kurt Miller/AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise)

Greyhounds with stuffed and sprung model monkeys strapped to their backs before a hurdle race at Wellinborough. (Photo by E. Bacon). 21st April 1928