Male's acting struggles with screen villains (7)
I believe the answer is:
heavies
'screen villains' is the definition.
(heavies might be villains in film or TV)
'male's acting struggles' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'he' (he refers to a man).
'acting' becomes 'a' (abbreviation, eg in job titles).
'struggles' becomes 'vies' (to vie is to struggle or contend with).
'he'+'a'+'vies'='HEAVIES'
'with' is the link.
(Other definitions for heavies that I've seen before include "Important people" , "Informally, hired thugs sound weighty" , "Sunday Times and similar" , "Large bodyguards" .)