An enterprising Chinese man pulls a bicycle cart packed high with bags of recyclable plastic containers in Shanghai July 25, 2002. The man sells each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plastic for 0.08 yuan ($.01) to a nearby depot. (Photo by Claro Cortes IV/Reuters)

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.

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner holds an amalgam of mercury and gold he mined after working a 28-hour shift at an illegal gold mining process, in La Pampa, in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Thousands of artisanal gold miners sweat through the long shifts and endure, for a few grams of gold, the perils of collapsing earth, limb-crushing machinery and the toxic mercury used to bind gold flecks. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Tribal artists and supporters from the southern Indian state of Karnataka dance outside the residence of Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi during her birthday celebrations in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, December 9, 2015. The Italian-born Gandhi is the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and has led the Congress party since 1998. (Photo by Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)

A girl carries a picture of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed along with others in Saudi Arabia, during a protest against the execution in front of the United Nation's building in Beirut, Lebanon January 3, 2016. Sign reads, “The martyr scholar Nimr al-Nimr”. (Photo by Hasan Shaaban/Reuters)

Expedition 44 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly seen inside the Cupola, a special module which provides a 360-degree viewing of the Earth and the International Space Station. Kelly is one of two crew members spending an entire year in space. (Photo by Scott Kelly/NASA)

A man exercises in the early morning on a hilltop overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan March 3, 2016. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

An injured man is carried atop an Iraqi special forces armored vehicle during fighting against Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, March 14, 2017. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)