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.

“George Clair Tooker, Jr. (August 5, 1920 – March 27, 2011) was a figurative painter whose works are associated with the Magic realism and Social realism movements. He was one of nine recipients of the National Medal of Arts in 2007”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “Government Bureau”, 1956; Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artwork by George Tooker. P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution.

A South Sudanese model applies make-up during the Festival of Fashion and Arts for Peace in Juba August 9, 2014. (Photo by Andreea Campeanu/Reuters)

Rapper Pitbull performs onstage during Nickelodeon's celebration of the new Burbank facility on January 11, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Nickelodeon)

Chinese Kazakh eagle hunters sit on horseback as they travel to a local competition on January 29, 2015 in the mountains of Qinghe County, Xinjiang, northwestern China. The festival, organised by the local hunting community, is part of an effort to promote and grow traditional hunting practices for new generations in the mountainous region of western China that borders Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. The training and handling of the large birds of prey follows a strict set of ancient rules that Kazakh eagle hunters are preserving for future generations. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

In this March 13, 2015 photo, Yohan, 4, from left, Cristian, 7, and Angelo, 6, playfully toss coca leaves into the air, singing: “I have a lot of money, look at all the money I have”, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Hauling cocaine out of the remote valley is about the only way to earn decent cash in this region where a farmhand earns less than $10 a day. Beyond extinguishing young lives, the practice has packed Peru's highland prisons with cocaine backpackers while their bosses evade incarceration. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A Lebanese man wears a mask to protect himself from the dust as a sandstorm blows over the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on September 8, 2015. An unseasonal sandstorm has hit the Middle East, reducing visibility and sending dozens to hospitals with breathing difficulties. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

Workers from the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium and Imagine Exhibitions put together an animatronic spinosaurus outside the science center in West Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, October 27, 2015. The giant spinosaurus is part of the Dinosaurs Around the World exhibit, set to open on November 1. (Photo by Maria Lorenzino/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP Photo)