diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1556207a..26092543 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -162,6 +162,7 @@ def main():
         + [
             # skbuild inserts PYTHON_* vars. That doesn't satisfy opencv build scripts in case of Py3
             "-DPYTHON3_EXECUTABLE=%s" % sys.executable,
+            "-DPYTHON_DEFAULT_EXECUTABLE=%s" % sys.executable,
             "-DPYTHON3_INCLUDE_DIR=%s" % python_include_dir,
             "-DPYTHON3_LIBRARY=%s" % python_lib_path,
             "-DBUILD_opencv_python3=ON",