diff --git a/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py b/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py
index 12b79b6cd..2b3cbc957 100644
--- a/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py
+++ b/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py
@@ -28,13 +28,14 @@ def dedent(content):
     as it fails to dedent multiline docstrings that include
     unindented text on the initial line.
     """
+    content = unicode(content)
     whitespace_counts = [len(line) - len(line.lstrip(' '))
                          for line in content.splitlines()[1:] if line.lstrip()]
 
     # unindent the content if needed
     if whitespace_counts:
         whitespace_pattern = '^' + (' ' * min(whitespace_counts))
-        content = re.sub(re.compile(whitespace_pattern, re.MULTILINE), '', unicode(content))
+        content = re.sub(re.compile(whitespace_pattern, re.MULTILINE), '', content)
 
     return content.strip()