Natalie Dormer attends the mtvU Fandom Awards at MTV Fan Fest at Comic-Con, July 24, 2014, in San Diego. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)

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 Filipino Catholic performing self-flagellation lies on the ground with his bloodied back outside a church on Good Friday, defying a government ban on religious gatherings amid rising coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, in Manila, Philippines, April 2, 2021. (Photo by Eloisa Lopez/Reuters)

In this Wednesday, August 21, 1991 file photo, appreciative muscovites hand bread, sausages and flowers to a Soviet tank's driver who helped stop the failed hardline coup in Moscow, Russia. When a group of top Communist officials ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev 30 years ago and flooded Moscow with tanks, the world held its breath, fearing a rollback on liberal reforms and a return to the Cold War confrontation. But the August 1991 coup collapsed in just three days, precipitating the breakup of the Soviet Union that plotters said they were trying to prevent. (Photo by Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo/File)

A deer walks across a pedestrian crossing in Nara, Japan, Thursday, March 19, 2020. More than 1,000 deer roam free in the ancient capital city of Japan. Despite the town's tourism decline, these wild animals are doing just fine without treats from tourists, according to a deer protection group. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Corey Jurgensen runs along East Henry Avenue wearing an inflatable unicorn costume. Jurgensen has been wearing the costume during runs several times a week to cheer up others during this time of isolation but finds it therapeutic for herself as well to run through her Seminole Heights neighborhood wearing a silly costume, Thursday, April 16, 2020 in Tampa, Fla. (Photo by Martha Asencio Rhine/Tampa Bay Times via AP Photo)

Two copper sharks ride the waves in Red Bluff Beach, Australia on July, 2020. Professional photographer Sean Scott, 43, from Burleigh Heads, Australia, caught the stunning snap. (Photo by Sean Scott/MediaDrumImages/@seanscottphotography)

A person dressed as an astronaut is seen at a metro station in Istanbul, Turkey on December 6, 2021. A man with an astronaut outfit walked around the city's metro stations as part of the promotion of NASA Space Exhibition, which reflects 50 years of space studies and experiences of the NASA, to be opened at Metropol Istanbul Mall. (Photo by Mehmet Murat Onel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)