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.

The Intel logo is projected on the face of Intel Executive Vice President Dadi Perlmutter as he speaks during a news conference about the 3-D Tri-Gate transistors called “Ivy Bridge” on May 4, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Intel announced a technical breakthrough in the microprocessors with the world's first Tri-Gate transistors, that will increase speed and consume less energy. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“We take rusty old junk and we put love into it”. The old Motor City has a unique style in bicycles these days: from fat wheels and fake fuel tanks to stretched cycles with powerful sound systems – and even a family-sized BBQ. “Detroit’s custom bike scene developed alongside Slow Roll, a weekly cycle ride started in 2010 by Jason Hall and Mike MacKool. Now upwards of 2,000 people turn up each Monday to cruise a different part of the city. The week I go the crowd seems evenly split between black and white, male and female, city and suburbs. It’s the most inclusive cycle event I’ve ever witnessed”. (Photo by Jason Walker/Slow Roll Monday Nights)

A driverless vehicle runs at Vanke's Building Research Centre testing area in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong province November 2, 2015. The country's largest property developer, China Vanke, is investing in its own robots to do certain jobs in the face of a labor shortage in the world's most populated country. This driverless car is among the robots that Vanke is aiming to bring in. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg's 'Stranger Visions', comprising of 3D printed faces extracted from DNA taken from discarded cigarette butts and chewing gum, is displayed at the Big Bang Data exhibition at Somerset House on December 2, 2015 in London, England. The show highlights the data explosion that's radically transforming our lives. It opens on December 3, 2015 and runs until February 28, 2016 at Somerset House. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images for Somerset House)

Balal, who killed Iranian youth Abdolah Hosseinzadeh in a street fight with a knife in 2007, is brought to the gallows during his execution ceremony in the northern city of Nowshahr on April 15, 2014. The mother of Abdolah Hosseinzadeh spared the life of the her son's convicted murderer, with an emotional slap in the face as he awaited execution prior to removing the noose around his neck. (Photo by Araash Khamooshi/AFP Photo/ISNA)

In this May 14, 2016 photo, children wearing their school backpacks climb on a cliff using a bamboo ladder on their way home from school in Zhaojue county, southwest China's Sichuan province. A village in China's mountainous west where schoolchildren must climb an 800-meter (2,625-foot)-high bamboo ladder secured to a sheer cliff face may get a set of steel stairs to improve it's safety. (Photo by Chinatopix via AP Photo)

As part of FLAIR Melbourne – a Flinders Lane art festival – Melbourne’s Lisa Minogue presents stylised photographic portraits of Australian women of colour, their faces painted vibrantly to accentuate their individuality and encourage the viewer to study each face more closely. Minogue asked each woman the same question: “What do the words “coloured girl” mean to you?”. (Photo by Lisa Minogue/The Guardian)