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.

Model and new Victoria's Secret Angel Taylor Hill from Illinois (L) and model Megan Puleri from Ohio (R) walk the runway while singer Selena Gomez performs during the 2015 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at Lexington Avenue Armory on November 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

Members of the “Exit Point” amateur rope-jumping group jump from a 44-metre high (144-ft) waterpipe bridge in the Siberian Taiga area outside Krasnoyarsk, September 13, 2015. Rope-jumping, an extreme sport, involves jumping from a high point using an advanced leverage system combining mountaineering and rope safety equipment. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

In this July 11, 2018 photo, members of a private photo studio take pictures of a woman in Havana, Cuba. New rules for private business indicate that the government has ruled out going further to open private business, such as allowing small and medium enterprises and authorizing business to operate as societies. Currently, private business licenses are granted only to individuals, and only one license per person. (Photo by Desmond Boylan/AP Photo)

Yanelis Blanco, 24, center, dances with a group of friends at Santa Maria beach, about 15 miles from Havana. It is the closest beach to Havana. Others, from left to right are Jackson Miranda, 21, Dayan Suarez, 24, and Melisa Oliva, 15. The men in the group have a rap group together. The government is demolishing buildings all over the coast of East Havana and recovering and restoring beach dunes. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Bar girls use their mobile phones outside a bar along the Walking Street where bars and sеx scenes are a commonplace July 31, 2016 in Pattaya, Thailand. Thailand's first female minister of tourism would like the sеx trade that is a huge business in the country to be banned. Tourists flock to Thailand for many sights including beautiful beaches but also for sеx tourism. Cities like Bangkok and Pattaya are well known as hubs of the Southeast Asian sеx trade, despite the fact that prostitution has been illegal in Thailand since 1960. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Spanish legionnaires sing an anthem as they carry a statue of the Christ of Mena outside a church during a ceremony before they take part in the “Mena” brotherhood procession in Malaga, southern Spain, March 24, 2016. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

Couples take part in a Valentine's Day attempt to break the record for the world's largest simultaneous gay kiss on February 14, 2004 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)