diff --git a/vm/src/stdlib/json.rs b/vm/src/stdlib/json.rs
index b881b7a724..fbe7ea6b1e 100644
--- a/vm/src/stdlib/json.rs
+++ b/vm/src/stdlib/json.rs
@@ -199,8 +199,7 @@ pub fn de_pyobject(vm: &VirtualMachine, s: &str) -> PyResult {
     de.deserialize(&mut serde_json::Deserializer::from_str(s))
         .map_err(|err| {
             let json_decode_error = vm
-                .sys_module
-                .get_item("modules")
+                .get_attribute(vm.sys_module.clone(), "modules")
                 .unwrap()
                 .get_item("json")
                 .unwrap()
diff --git a/vm/src/vm.rs b/vm/src/vm.rs
index 321d659b8f..4148184f42 100644
--- a/vm/src/vm.rs
+++ b/vm/src/vm.rs
@@ -451,11 +451,11 @@ impl VirtualMachine {
         // Do we support `**kwargs` ?
         let kwargs = match code_object.varkeywords {
             bytecode::Varargs::Named(ref kwargs_name) => {
-                let d = self.ctx.new_dict().into_object();
-                locals.set_item(&self.ctx, kwargs_name, d.clone());
+                let d = self.ctx.new_dict();
+                locals.set_item(&self.ctx, kwargs_name, d.as_object().clone());
                 Some(d)
             }
-            bytecode::Varargs::Unnamed => Some(self.ctx.new_dict().into_object()),
+            bytecode::Varargs::Unnamed => Some(self.ctx.new_dict()),
             bytecode::Varargs::None => None,
         };