diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 32e3902aff..0300824bd1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ A brief description of the categories of changes:
   ([#2186](https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_python/issues/2186)).
 * (py_wheel) Fix incorrectly generated `Required-Dist` when specifying requirements with markers
   in extra_requires in py_wheel rule.
+* (rules) Prevent pytest from trying run the generated stage2
+  bootstrap .py file when using {obj}`--bootstrap_impl=script`
 
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/python/private/common/py_executable_bazel.bzl b/python/private/common/py_executable_bazel.bzl
index a0cfebad8a..dae1c4a0b1 100644
--- a/python/private/common/py_executable_bazel.bzl
+++ b/python/private/common/py_executable_bazel.bzl
@@ -330,7 +330,9 @@ def _create_stage2_bootstrap(
         imports,
         runtime_details):
     output = ctx.actions.declare_file(
-        "{}_stage2_bootstrap.py".format(output_prefix),
+        # Prepend with underscore to prevent pytest from trying to
+        # process the bootstrap for files starting with `test_`
+        "_{}_stage2_bootstrap.py".format(output_prefix),
         sibling = output_sibling,
     )
     runtime = runtime_details.effective_runtime