diff --git a/rest_framework/request.py b/rest_framework/request.py
index 93634e667..194be5f6d 100644
--- a/rest_framework/request.py
+++ b/rest_framework/request.py
@@ -413,7 +413,8 @@ class Request:
         to proxy it to the underlying HttpRequest object.
         """
         try:
-            return getattr(self._request, attr)
+            _request = self.__getattribute__("_request")
+            return getattr(_request, attr)
         except AttributeError:
             return self.__getattribute__(attr)
 
diff --git a/tests/test_request.py b/tests/test_request.py
index 8f55d00ed..8c18aea9e 100644
--- a/tests/test_request.py
+++ b/tests/test_request.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """
 Tests for content parsing, and form-overloaded content parsing.
 """
+import copy
 import os.path
 import tempfile
 
@@ -344,3 +345,10 @@ class TestHttpRequest(TestCase):
         # ensure that request stream was consumed by form parser
         assert request.content_type.startswith('multipart/form-data')
         assert response.data == {'a': ['b']}
+
+
+class TestDeepcopy(TestCase):
+
+    def test_deepcopy_works(self):
+        request = Request(factory.get('/', secure=False))
+        copy.deepcopy(request)