A partial solar eclipse is seen in a break in the clouds during rush hour in downtown Wichita Kan., Thursday, October 23, 2014. A partial eclipse occurs when the moon covers a portion of the sun as seen from the Earth. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)

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.

Farmers ride home on a tractor pulling an overloaded trailer full of straw in a village outside Faisalabad, Pakistan May 3, 2017. (Photo by Caren Firouz/Reuters)

A Pakistani scavenger girl writes on a notebook she collected from a garbage, while another girl sits next to her in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Thousands of children pick recyclable items from waste dumping points to earn living for their poor families. (Photo by K. M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

Children dressed as Santa Clause play with a soccer ball as they celebrate at their school ahead of Christmas in Chennai on December 23, 2021. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

People look at smoke and flame rising from the Nevskaya Manufaktura textile factory founded by English merchant J. Thornton in 1841, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, April 12, 2021. The emergencies ministry said the fire had broken out over several floors of the red-brick Nevskaya Manufaktura building on the Oktyabrskaya Embankment of the Neva River. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A handout photo made available by Jose Juan Rodriguez Rocha, on 17 November 2021 shows lightning over Cumbre vieja Volcano as seen from El Paso, La Palma, Canary Islands Spain, 14 November 2021. The lightning over a volcano is sometimes seen due to the charge of electricity caused by the friction of the expelled particles within the column of ashes and pyroclastic rocks. (Photo by Jose Juan Rodríguez Rocha/EPA/EFE)

An Indian worker crosses a street holding a shovel during monsoon rains in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Wednesday, July 29, 2020. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)