diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py b/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py
index d395d1df6f5..f8063862cc4 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py
@@ -58,7 +58,11 @@ class ActionModule(object):
         # now we need to unescape it so that the newlines are evaluated properly
         # when writing the file to disk
         if content:
-            content = content.decode('unicode-escape')
+            if isinstance(content, unicode):
+                try:
+                    content = content.decode('unicode-escape')
+                except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                    pass
 
         if (source is None and content is None and not 'first_available_file' in inject) or dest is None:
             result=dict(failed=True, msg="src (or content) and dest are required")