diff --git a/ansible_mitogen/connection.py b/ansible_mitogen/connection.py
index 3410d7a4..45e5ee5e 100644
--- a/ansible_mitogen/connection.py
+++ b/ansible_mitogen/connection.py
@@ -504,9 +504,7 @@ class Connection(ansible.plugins.connection.ConnectionBase):
     loader_basedir = None
 
     # set by `_get_task_vars()` for interpreter discovery
-    # we need it to be an object with the value of "_finding_python_interpreter" in case we aren't
-    # running interpreter discovery fully
-    _action = type(str('actionTemp'), (object,), {'_finding_python_interpreter': False})
+    _action = None
 
     def __del__(self):
         """
@@ -778,7 +776,6 @@ class Connection(ansible.plugins.connection.ConnectionBase):
             play_context=self._play_context,
             transport=self.transport,
             inventory_name=self.get_task_var('inventory_hostname'),
-            action=self._action
         )
         stack = self._stack_from_spec(spec)
         return spec.inventory_name(), stack
diff --git a/ansible_mitogen/transport_config.py b/ansible_mitogen/transport_config.py
index 5b8cfd2c..2a7a1e58 100644
--- a/ansible_mitogen/transport_config.py
+++ b/ansible_mitogen/transport_config.py
@@ -397,14 +397,14 @@ class PlayContextSpec(Spec):
     PlayContext. It is used for normal connections and delegate_to connections,
     and should always be accurate.
     """
-    def __init__(self, connection, play_context, transport, inventory_name, action):
+    def __init__(self, connection, play_context, transport, inventory_name):
         self._connection = connection
         self._play_context = play_context
         self._transport = transport
         self._inventory_name = inventory_name
         self._task_vars = self._connection._get_task_vars()
         # used to run interpreter discovery
-        self._action = action
+        self._action = connection._action
 
     def transport(self):
         return self._transport
diff --git a/tests/ansible/tests/connection_test.py b/tests/ansible/tests/connection_test.py
index 71e1d042..e6578954 100644
--- a/tests/ansible/tests/connection_test.py
+++ b/tests/ansible/tests/connection_test.py
@@ -47,11 +47,15 @@ class ConnectionMixin(MuxProcessMixin):
     def make_connection(self):
         play_context = ansible.playbook.play_context.PlayContext()
         conn = self.klass(play_context, new_stdin=False)
+        # conn functions don't fetch ActionModuleMixin objs from _get_task_vars()
+        # through the usual walk-the-stack approach so we'll not run interpreter discovery here
+        conn._action = mock.MagicMock(_possible_python_interpreter='/usr/bin/python')
         conn.on_action_run(
             task_vars={},
             delegate_to_hostname=None,
             loader_basedir=None,
         )
+
         return conn
 
     def wait_for_completion(self):