Face villain failing to initiate exchange (8)
I believe the answer is:
dialogue
'exchange' is the definition.
(an exchange of words)
'face villain failing to initiate' is the wordplay.
'face' becomes 'dial' (face of a clock).
'villain' becomes 'rogue' (rogue is a kind of villain).
'failing to initiate' means to remove the first letter (the word doesn\'t begin or initiate).
'rogue' with its first letter taken off is 'ogue'.
'dial'+'ogue'='DIALOGUE'
(Other definitions for dialogue that I've seen before include "Lines spoken in films, books etc" , "Conversation as in a play" , "The words spoken by characters in a play" , "brought into play perhaps" , "Talks" .)