diff --git a/spyder_line_profiler/spyder/widgets.py b/spyder_line_profiler/spyder/widgets.py
index f8f81bf..e91c690 100644
--- a/spyder_line_profiler/spyder/widgets.py
+++ b/spyder_line_profiler/spyder/widgets.py
@@ -416,7 +416,7 @@ def start(self, wdir=None, args=None):
         self.clear_data()
         self.error_output = ''
 
-        p_args = ['-m', 'kernprof', '-lvb', '-o', self.DATAPATH]
+        p_args = ['-X', 'utf8', '-m', 'kernprof', '-lvb', '-o', self.DATAPATH]
         if os.name == 'nt':
             # On Windows, one has to replace backslashes by slashes to avoid
             # confusion with escape characters (otherwise, for example, '\t'