  Soft elastomers that can exhibit extremely large deformations under the
action of an electric field are essential for applications such as soft
robotics, stretchable and flexible electronics, energy harvesting among others.
The critical limiting factor in conventional electro-actuation of such
materials is the occurrence of the so-called pull-in instability. In this work,
we demonstrate an extraordinarily simple way to coax a dielectric thin film
towards a symmetry-breaking pitchfork bifurcation state while avoiding pull-in
instability. Through the nonlinear interplay between the two bifurcation modes,
we predict electro-actuation strains that exceed what is conventionally
possible by 200$\%$, and at significantly lower applied electric fields.
