An employee of a bakery talks on his mobile while balancing on his head a tray of freshly baked bread from a local bakery in a street in Cairo, Egypt, January 12, 2016. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)

The sculpture “It Takes Two to Tango” by Scottish sculptor David Mach is seen in front of the headquarters of the CMA-CGM shipping company office tower in the port of Marseille, France, March 15, 2016. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

A Tibetan nomad family crowds on a motorcycle at a camp for cordycep pickers on May 21, 2016 near Sershul on the Tibetan Plateau in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan province. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Men are held by Iraqi national security agents, to be interrogated at a checkpoint, as oil fields burn in Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq, Saturday, November 5, 2016. Islamic State fighters launch counterattacks in the thin strip of territory Iraqi special forces have recaptured in eastern Mosul, highlighting the challenges ahead as the battle moves into more densely populated neighborhoods where coalition air power must be used more selectively. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

People walk past debris on May 3, 2015 in Bhaktapur, Nepal. A major 7.8 earthquake hit Kathmandu mid-day on Saturday, and was followed by multiple aftershocks that triggered avalanches on Mt. Everest that buried mountain climbers in their base camps. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

A man passes by an unfinished street art graffiti made in a stairway by French street artists Zag and Sia in Paris on March 1, 2016. The two artists drew inspiration from famous “Liberty Leading the People” (La Liberte guidant le peuple) painting by French Eugene Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 and viewed as a symbol of the French Republic. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)

A security guard looks at the models during La Perla’s presentation at the Dream Hotel. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, New York City, Spring 2014. From the series “Fashion Lust”. (Photo by Dina Litovsky)

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.