A family tries to cross a flooded road amid gushing water in Kolkata, India on August 17, 2019. Heavy rain continues for a second day in Kolkata, which contuinued to flood many streets all around the city. Authorities are working overtime to clear the roads. (Photo by Debarchan Chatterjee/Zuma Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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.

Children guarded by Hungarian police play on the ground after being detained along with other migrants who illegally crossed from Serbia to Hungary near the village of Asotthalom, Hungary, September 16, 2015. (Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Masked Palestinian demonstrators hide behind a metal plate during clashes with Israeli soldiers on March 12, 2018 in the West Bank town of Birzeit, near Ramallah, following a protest by students of the Birzeit University against the arrest of the the head of Palestinian student council by an Israeli undercover commando. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP Photo)

Palestinians kids from the West Bank Palestinian village Umm Al Rajaj cross the Meitar checkpoint into Israel on their way to the beach of Tel Aviv for the first time, Israel, 10 August 2016. A group of humanitarian Israeli women called in Arabic “Min Al Baher” (from the sea) voluntarily arranges authorizations and transportation for Palestinians families that live in the West Bank to cross into Israel in order to visit the sea for the first time. (Photo by Abir Sultan/EPA)

In this June 1, 2016 photo, Maria Arias stands near her kitchen as she puts on earrings while getting ready for school in Caracas, Venezuela. So many students have fainted from hunger at Maria's school that administrators told parents to keep their children home until they could find more food. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

An Afghan man prepares tea for customers at a roadside tea shop on the outskirts of Jalalabad February 2, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Parwiz)

British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Cambridge University Professor and Fellow, circa 1985. Stephen Hawking, the brightest star in the firmament of science, whose insights shaped modern cosmology and inspired global audiences in the millions, has died aged 76. (Photo by Gemma Levine/Getty Images)