diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/resource_filter.go b/pkg/kubectl/resource_filter.go
index 8ca31d83ac3..cd6470ba23e 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/resource_filter.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/resource_filter.go
@@ -58,6 +58,17 @@ func filterPods(obj runtime.Object, options PrintOptions) bool {
 
 // Filter loops through a collection of FilterFuncs until it finds one that can filter the given resource
 func (f Filters) Filter(obj runtime.Object, opts *PrintOptions) (bool, error) {
+	// check if the object is unstructured. If so, let's attempt to convert it to a type we can understand
+	// before apply filter func.
+	switch obj.(type) {
+	case *runtime.UnstructuredList, *runtime.Unstructured, *runtime.Unknown:
+		if objBytes, err := runtime.Encode(api.Codecs.LegacyCodec(), obj); err == nil {
+			if decodedObj, err := runtime.Decode(api.Codecs.UniversalDecoder(), objBytes); err == nil {
+				obj = decodedObj
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	for _, filter := range f {
 		if ok := filter(obj, *opts); ok {
 			return true, nil