diff --git a/google/cloud/bigquery/query.py b/google/cloud/bigquery/query.py
index 7f70f6a2a..170ed2976 100644
--- a/google/cloud/bigquery/query.py
+++ b/google/cloud/bigquery/query.py
@@ -1400,7 +1400,7 @@ def _set_properties(self, api_response):
             api_response (Dict): Response returned from an API call
         """
         self._properties.clear()
-        self._properties.update(copy.deepcopy(api_response))
+        self._properties.update(api_response)
 
 
 def _query_param_from_api_repr(resource):