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 Hadaka Matsuri (“Naked Festival”) is a type of Japanese festival, or matsuri, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth (called fundoshi), sometimes with a short happi coat, and rarely completely naked. Whatever the clothing, it is considered to be above vulgar, or everyday, undergarments, and on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is held in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Japanese men wear loincloths as they splash about in freezing cold water during Saidaiji Naked Festival, at Saidaiji Temple on February 18, 2012 in Okayama, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

Members of the police forces of Republic of Srpska march during a parade marking the 30th anniversary of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka, northern Bosnia, Sunday, January 9, 2022. This week Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik was slapped with new U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption. Dodik maintains the West is punishing him for championing the rights of ethnic Serbs in Bosnia – a dysfunctional country of 3.3 million that's never truly recovered from a fratricidal war in the 1990s that became a byname for ethnic cleansing and genocide. (Photo by Radivoje Pavicic/AP Photo)

Artists perform during the press photocall for the show “LUZIA” of Cirque du Soleil at Royal Albert Hall on January 11, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

Visitors look out from a balcony in a quiet mall area with closed retail shops and restaurants only offering takeaway on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, in Beijing. China's capital began another round of three days of mass testing for millions of its residents Tuesday in a bid to prevent an outbreak from growing to Shanghai proportions. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Police officers detain a woman during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, September 19, 2020. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month and opposition determination appears strong despite the detention of protest leaders. (Photo by TUT.by via AP Photo)

Steve Kent skis through Times Square during a snowstorm, Monday, February 1, 2021, in the Manhattan borough of New York. (Photo by John Minchillo/AP Photo)

Some bats in the forested area of Guapiles, Costa Rica, 21 April 2020. (Photo by Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA/EFE)