diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/73996-recursion-depth.yml b/changelogs/fragments/73996-recursion-depth.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..35af5aa534e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/73996-recursion-depth.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+bugfixes:
+- Task depth - Prevent exception when the task depth exceeds Pythons recursion depth
+  (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/73996)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/base.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/base.py
index 5fc050895f4..9fa84d14730 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/base.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/base.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ from jinja2.exceptions import UndefinedError
 
 from ansible import constants as C
 from ansible import context
+from ansible.errors import AnsibleError
 from ansible.module_utils.six import iteritems, string_types, with_metaclass
 from ansible.module_utils.parsing.convert_bool import boolean
 from ansible.errors import AnsibleParserError, AnsibleUndefinedVariable, AnsibleAssertionError
@@ -315,7 +316,10 @@ class FieldAttributeBase(with_metaclass(BaseMeta, object)):
         Create a copy of this object and return it.
         '''
 
-        new_me = self.__class__()
+        try:
+            new_me = self.__class__()
+        except RuntimeError as e:
+            raise AnsibleError("Exceeded maximum object depth. This may have been caused by excessive role recursion", orig_exc=e)
 
         for name in self._valid_attrs.keys():
             if name in self._alias_attrs: