Los Angeles city firefighters battle a massive fire at a seven-story downtown apartment complex under construction in Los Angeles, California December 8, 2014. Over 250 firefighters battle the early morning blaze which shutdown two major freeways the Los Angeles Fire Department and California Highway Patrol said. (Photo by Gene Blevins/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.

“Born in 1965 at Tokyo, living at Tokyo. Starting shooting since 2008. 2011: 1x Photo Awards Honorable Mention (Street). 2012: Black and White Spider Awards 2nd Place (Portrait), Honorable Mention (Fashion); PX3 Gold Awards (Press); Israel Harvanism Street Contest 1st Place. 2013: Urban Picnic Street Contest Top30 Finalist; PX3 3rd Place (Portrait), Gold (Portrait - Personality), Gold (Press - People/Personality); Photolux + PhotoVogue Photo Contest 1st Place. 2014: Sony World Photography Awards Commended (Smile Category)”. – Tatsuo Suzuki. Photo: “Spring”. (Photo by Tatsuo Suzuki)

Attendees arrive dressed as their favourite comic characters for the MCM London Comic Con, a convention to celebrate the culture of comic books and related art forms, in London, Britain, May 25, 2018. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

Lucha libre is Mexico’s version of what in the United States refer to as pro wrestling. Its dates to 1863, when a Mexican wrestler named Enrique Ugartechea developed a form of “freestyle” wrestling that was based on Greco-Roman wrestling. Lucha libre began to soar in popularity in Mexico after two Italian businessmen started promoting fights in the early 1900s. It has since become popular around the globe. Here: Juliza meets with colleagues at her home. (Photo by Diana Bagnoli/The Washington Post)

Ice swimmer Klaudia prepares to swim in a filled up water kettle in an ice cave inside the Nature Ice Palace, with a hight of 3,250 meters (10,663 feet) above sea level, at Hintertux Glacier near Hintertux, some 480 kilometers (298 miles) western of Vienna, Austria, 28 July 2018. (Photo by Christian Bruna/EPA/EFE)

A Maasai boy bites a bull's heart during an initiation into an age group ceremony near the town of Bisil, Kajiado county, Kenya, August 23, 2018. Thousands of Kenyan boys had a blessing of milk and beer sprayed on them as part of a rare Maasai ethnic community initiation ceremony to mark their passing into early manhood. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)