diff --git a/dev-python/python-poppler-qt5/python-poppler-qt5-21.3.0.ebuild b/dev-python/python-poppler-qt5/python-poppler-qt5-21.3.0.ebuild
index 672c9ecf7060a..fe358ef69dacd 100644
--- a/dev-python/python-poppler-qt5/python-poppler-qt5-21.3.0.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/python-poppler-qt5/python-poppler-qt5-21.3.0.ebuild
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 EAPI=8
 
+DISTUTILS_EXT=1
 DISTUTILS_USE_PEP517=sip
 PYTHON_COMPAT=( python3_{9,10,11} )