play role vs portray

play role

portray

verb
  • To play a role; to depict a character, person, situation, or event. 

  • To describe in words; to convey. 

  • To paint or draw the likeness of. 

  • To represent by an image or look. 

How often have the words play role and portray occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )