diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/lxc.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/lxc.py
index 5219b28d680..0c623ab5340 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/lxc.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/lxc.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ except ImportError:
 
 from ansible import constants as C
 from ansible import errors
-from ansible.module_utils._text import to_bytes
+from ansible.module_utils._text import to_bytes, to_native
 from ansible.plugins.connection import ConnectionBase
 
 
@@ -116,8 +116,9 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         ''' run a command on the chroot '''
         super(Connection, self).exec_command(cmd, in_data=in_data, sudoable=sudoable)
 
-        executable = to_bytes(self._play_context.executable, errors='surrogate_or_strict')
-        local_cmd = [executable, '-c', to_bytes(cmd, errors='surrogate_or_strict')]
+        # python2-lxc needs bytes. python3-lxc needs text.
+        executable = to_native(self._play_context.executable, errors='surrogate_or_strict')
+        local_cmd = [executable, '-c', to_native(cmd, errors='surrogate_or_strict')]
 
         read_stdout, write_stdout = None, None
         read_stderr, write_stderr = None, None