Smart role-casting in "Peppery” (8)
I believe the answer is:
choleric
'peppery' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'smart role-casting in' is the wordplay.
'smart' becomes 'chic' (both can mean stylish).
'casting' is an anagram indicator.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'role' with letters rearranged gives 'oler'.
'chic' enclosing 'oler' is 'CHOLERIC'.
(Other definitions for choleric that I've seen before include "Irascible" , "Easily angered - cliche or what?" , "Ill-tempered" , "Annoyed" , "Bad-tempered, irritable" .)