A christmas teddy bear is wheeled along on a trolley at the Steiff stuffed toy factory on November 23, 2012 in Giengen an der Brenz, Germany. Founded by seamstress Margarethe Steiff in 1880, Steiff has been making stuffed teddy bears since the early 20th century ever since her nephew Richard Steiff exhibited the first commercially produced teddy bear in Europe in 1903. Teddy bears are among the most popular children's toys and the company is hoping for a strong Christmas season. (Photo by Thomas Niedermueller)

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.

A woman has her hair blown by the wind during a snowstorm in Quebec City, on December 22, 2013. (Photo by Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

“Kids of Sapa”. Four little beautiful Hmong girls from Lao Chai Village, near Sapa, Vietnam. (Photo and caption by Felipe Hanower/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

People walk past the Sleepwalker, a sculpture along the High Line in New York, US on May 10, 2016. The hyperrealistic work by Brooklyn artist Tony Matelli is part of the linear park’s Wanderlust exhibition. (Photo by Xinhua/Barcroft Images)

In this October 24, 2010 file photo, Canadian-born actress Pamela Anderson poses for photographers during a photocall to unveil a new advertisement in aid of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in London to encourage people to go vegetarian. PETA turns 35 years old in 2015, is the largest animal rights group in world with 3 million members, and has done a lot with a little s*x, shock and celebrity. (Photo by Akira Suemori/AP Photo)

A girl plays on a pile of discarded flowers outside a market, the day after the Diwali celebrations in Mumbai, India October 31, 2016. (Photo by Shailesh Andrade/Reuters)

Takeoka Chisaka, Hiroshima, Japan. “One morning in August 1945, I was walking home from the night shift at a factory in Hiroshima. As I reached my door, there was a huge explosion. When I came to, my head was bleeding and I had been blasted 30m away. The atomic bomb had detonated. When I found my mother, her eyes were badly burned. A doctor said they had to come out, but he didn’t have the proper tools so used a knife instead. It was hellish. I became a peace-worker after the war. In the 1960s, at a meeting at the UN, I met one of the people who created the atomic bomb. He apologised”. (Photo and caption by Sasha Maslov)