diff --git a/roles/build-python-release/README.rst b/roles/build-python-release/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3a2981c3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/build-python-release/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Build sdist and wheel for Python projects.
+
+** Role Variables **
+
+.. zuul:rolevar:: release_python
+   :default: python
+
+   The python interpreter to use. Set it to "python3" to use python 3,
+   for example.
diff --git a/roles/build-python-release/defaults/main.yaml b/roles/build-python-release/defaults/main.yaml
index 9739eb171..10203cd5f 100644
--- a/roles/build-python-release/defaults/main.yaml
+++ b/roles/build-python-release/defaults/main.yaml
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 zuul_work_dir: "{{ zuul.project.src_dir }}"
+release_python: "python"
diff --git a/roles/build-python-release/tasks/main.yaml b/roles/build-python-release/tasks/main.yaml
index 2ca846531..bd56cf798 100644
--- a/roles/build-python-release/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/roles/build-python-release/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 - name: Build a tarball and wheel
-  command: python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+  command: "{{release_python}} setup.py sdist bdist_wheel"
   args:
     chdir: "{{ zuul_work_dir }}"