Play I act badly out of character (8)
I believe the answer is:
atypical
'out of character' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'play i act badly' is the wordplay.
'badly' indicates an anagram.
'play'+'i'+'act'='playiact'
'playiact' is an anagram of 'ATYPICAL'.
(Other definitions for atypical that I've seen before include "Nonconformist" , "Uncharacteristic" , "Not representative or usual" , "Deviating from what is usual or common" , "out of character" .)