Xiren Wang, Lili Wat, and Sitong Chen join the pageant’s opening routine, dancing to “The Boys”, a song by K-Pop group «Girls’ Generation». While the women come from a range of professional backgrounds – including economics, nursing, and acting – every contestant is looking for her big break into the entertainment industry. Most contestants said they would prefer to have a career in the U.S. but would go wherever the opportunity lies. (Photo and caption by John Brecher/Sahra Vang Nguyen/NBC News)

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 protester stands against Turkish soldiers during clashes near Silivri, where a hearing on people charged with attempting to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government is due to take place August 5, 2013. A Turkish court on Monday sentenced a former military commander to life in prison and dozens of others including opposition members of parliament to long terms for plotting against the government, in a case that has exposed deep divisions in the country. Retired military chief of staff General Ilker Basbug was sentenced to life for his role in the “Ergenekon” conspiracy to overthrow the government of Erdogan. (Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews)

A girl bathes to cool off herself with water that is leaking from a broken pipe valve on a hot summer day on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, May 18, 2015. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Thomas Thwaites of the United Kingdom accepts the 2016 Ig Nobel Prize in Biology for “creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming the hills in the company of, goats” during the 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. September 22, 2016. (Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters)

A woman plays with a kitten inside of a line house in downtown Shanghai April 12, 2015. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

A man looks on from the sea as Italian model and actress Elisa Sednaoui poses for photographers a day before the 72nd Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, September 1, 2015. Sednaoui will be hosting the opening and closing ceremonies of the film festival. (Photo by Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

Macaque monkeys crowd together in their cage at a monkey farm on February 3, 2016 in Xinye county, Henan province, China. The area boasts a centuries-long and lucrative history of raising and training monkeys for performance. In Xinye, villagers are seeing an increase in business with the lunar calendar's “Year of the Monkey”. Farmers say most of the monkeys are bred and raised for domestic zoos, circuses, and performing groups, but add that some are also sold for medical research in China and the United States. Despite the popularity of the tradition, critics contend the training methods and conditions constitute animal cruelty. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)