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.

Young man making the O.K. sign. (Photo by George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images). Circa 1950s

5-year-old Rina Kumari rubs her eye while cracking stones on the banks of Mahananda river in Siliguri, northeast India, March 5, 2005. Over 400 million people in India live below the internationally agreed poverty line (living on less than US $1 per day). According to estimates, several hundred thousand children work as labourers and beg on the streets in India. (Photo by Desmond Boylan/Reuters)

A boy carries sugar cane through a farm on the outskirt of Zaria in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna November 15, 2016. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

JAPAN: A businessman stands at a pond in the Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Garden on a warm and sunny day in Tokyo, Japan, March 18, 2016. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A woman wears a face mask in the part of the city near neighbourhoods known for burning coal for heating in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia January 26, 2017. Not many people in Ulaanbaatar wear masks to protect themselves against pollution. (Photo by B. Rentsendorj/Reuters)

A supercell thunderstorm develops, May 8, 2017 in Elbert County outside of Limon, Colorado. With funding from the National Science Foundation and other government grants, scientists and meteorologists from the Center for Severe Weather Research try to get close to supercell storms and tornadoes trying to better understand tornado structure and strength, how low-level winds affect and damage buildings, and to learn more about tornado formation and prediction. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In this May 1, 2016 photo, a reluctant donkey is alternately pushed and pulled and enticed with carrots toward town hall in order to be dressed for the costume competition at the annual donkey festival in Otumba, Mexico state, Mexico. Otumba was an important donkey market during Spanish colonial times, standing at the crossroads of major roads leading to Mexico City, where the beasts pulled heavy loads and carried travelers. Today, however, farmers use tractors and pickup trucks, and the donkey population is in decline. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)