Play one's role, initially, with characteristic depiction (8)
I believe the answer is:
portrait
'depiction' is the definition.
(portrait is a kind of depiction)
'play one's role initially with characteristic' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'characteristic' becomes 'trait' (I've seen this before).
The first letters of 'play ones role' is 'por'.
'por'+'trait'='PORTRAIT'
(Other definitions for portrait that I've seen before include "Picture of person" , "(Person's) painting" , "Artistic representation (of a person)" , "Type of painting" , "Oil perhaps" .)