Shooting celebrities can be tense work, but if you get a project like this one where they are asked to “act” and make faces, it’s a little bit easier and more fun. Check out this article by Vanity Fair, where photographer Howard Schatz place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. You can read their roles below the images.

Check out Ricky Gervais behind the scenes video here. And you can see the rest of the images from Vanity Fair here.