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假戏真做

假戲真做
jiǎxìzhēnzuò
idiom #33,777

Meanings

  1. 1 to play a fake game for real
  2. 2 to act out something pretend with full commitment
  3. 3 to take a sham seriously; for a pretense to become reality

Examples

他们本来只是排练，没想到假戏真做，真的吵了起来。
Tāmen běnlái zhǐshì páiliàn, méi xiǎngdào jiǎxìzhēnzuò, zhēn de chǎo le qǐlái.
They were just rehearsing, but the fake fight turned real and they actually started arguing.
电视剧里两个演员假戏真做，最后真的结婚了。
Diànshìjù lǐ liǎng gè yǎnyuán jiǎxìzhēnzuò, zuìhòu zhēn de jiéhūn le.
The two actors in the TV drama acted out their romance for real and ended up actually getting married.

Tips

history
The phrase is traced in modern usage to drama theorist 洪深 (Hong Shen)'s 《电影戏剧表演术》 (Techniques of Film and Drama Acting, ch. 3): 表演的所以能感动人，就是因为演员的诚恳，所谓'假戏真做' — 'What makes acting move people is the actor's sincerity — what we call jiǎxì zhēnzuò.' Originally a praise of actors who fully commit to fictional roles.
usage
Two flavors today: (a) admiring — an actor commits so fully the performance feels real; (b) ironic — a pretense, prank, or sham accidentally turns into the real thing (the 'showmance becoming a real romance' usage is now the most common in entertainment news).

Stroke Order

假 jià
戏 xì
真 zhēn
做 zuò