The figure of an eight-year-old boy is seen inside a suitcase on a Spanish civil guard scanner screen at the border between Morocco and Spain's north african enclave Ceuta, Spain in this handout photo released May 8, 2015. A 19-year-old woman was arrested May 7, 2015 for the attempted smuggling of the boy, who was checked by medics and handed over to juvenile prosecutors office, according to authorities. (Photo by Reuters/Ministerio Del Interior)

An explosion at a petrochemical plant is seen in Rizhao, Shandong province, July 16, 2015. According to Xinhua News Agency, a fire broke out after the explosion, which was caused by a liquified hydrocarbon leak at the plant, on Thursday morning. There was no report of casualties yet. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Michal Navratil of the Czech Republic performs after the men's 27 meter high dive final at the Swimming World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Wednesday, August 5, 2015. (Photo by Denis Tyrin/AP Photo)

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.

An x-ray of a woman drinking, taken by British artist and photographer Hugh Turvey in London, England. (Photo by Hugh Turvey/SPL/Barcroft Media)

“Sperm whale opening it's huge mouth, Ogasawara Islands, Japan. Sperm whales are the biggest carnivorous animals on the planet. Each teeth in the mouth of adult specimen weights more than 1 kilogram. Interestingly enough that modern marine biologists believe that these teeth despite being fearsome play little role in capturing and eating giant squid – with their main function being mainly ritual aggression between males!”. (Photo by Alexander Safonov)

“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

A woman walks behind the installation “Wandering boy is forever attractive” (1985) by Tetsumi Kudo during the press preview at the exhibition “Tetsumi Kudo – Retrospective” in the Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany, Friday, September 23, 2016. The exhibition offers an in-depth, comprehensive view of works by the Japanese artist Kudo. It starts on Sept. 25, 2016 and lasts until Jan. 1, 2017. (Photo by Jens Meyer/AP Photo)