diff --git a/Changes.md b/Changes.md
index 1af60ee4..91750d53 100644
--- a/Changes.md
+++ b/Changes.md
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+HEAD
+-----------
+
+- Defer loading JSON until a full Thread stack is available.  Celluloid's
+  standard 4k actor stack will lead to crashes when parsing large payloads.
+
 2.0.3
 -----------
 - Fix sidekiq-web's navbar on mobile devices and windows <= 980px (ezkl)
diff --git a/lib/sidekiq/manager.rb b/lib/sidekiq/manager.rb
index b9c54d3a..74534be0 100644
--- a/lib/sidekiq/manager.rb
+++ b/lib/sidekiq/manager.rb
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ module Sidekiq
           processor = @ready.pop
           @in_progress[processor.object_id] = [msg, queue]
           @busy << processor
-          processor.process!(Sidekiq.load_json(msg), queue)
+          processor.process!(msg, queue)
         end
       end
     end
diff --git a/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb b/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb
index 3339be3f..d72db448 100644
--- a/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb
+++ b/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb
@@ -30,15 +30,16 @@ module Sidekiq
       @boss = boss
     end
 
-    def process(msg, queue)
-      klass  = constantize(msg['class'])
-      worker = klass.new
-
+    def process(msgstr, queue)
       # Celluloid actor calls are performed within a Fiber.
       # This would give us a terribly small 4KB stack on MRI
       # so we use Celluloid's defer to run things in a thread pool
       # in order to get a full-sized stack for the Worker.
       defer do
+        msg = Sidekiq.load_json(msgstr)
+        klass  = constantize(msg['class'])
+        worker = klass.new
+
         stats(worker, msg, queue) do
           Sidekiq.server_middleware.invoke(worker, msg, queue) do
             worker.perform(*msg['args'])
diff --git a/test/test_middleware.rb b/test/test_middleware.rb
index b4c5f3d0..44a7f964 100644
--- a/test/test_middleware.rb
+++ b/test/test_middleware.rb
@@ -43,9 +43,10 @@ class TestMiddleware < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
     end
 
     class CustomWorker
+      $recorder = []
       include Sidekiq::Worker
       def perform(recorder)
-        recorder << ['work_performed']
+        $recorder << ['work_performed']
       end
     end
 
@@ -56,18 +57,18 @@ class TestMiddleware < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
 
     it 'executes middleware in the proper order' do
       recorder = []
-      msg = { 'class' => CustomWorker.to_s, 'args' => [recorder] }
+      msg = Sidekiq.dump_json({ 'class' => CustomWorker.to_s, 'args' => [$recorder] })
 
       Sidekiq.server_middleware do |chain|
         # should only add once, second should be ignored
-        2.times { |i| chain.add CustomMiddleware, i.to_s, recorder }
+        2.times { |i| chain.add CustomMiddleware, i.to_s, $recorder }
       end
 
       boss = MiniTest::Mock.new
       processor = Sidekiq::Processor.new(boss)
       boss.expect(:processor_done!, nil, [processor])
       processor.process(msg, 'default')
-      assert_equal %w(0 before work_performed 0 after), recorder.flatten
+      assert_equal %w(0 before work_performed 0 after), $recorder.flatten
     end
 
     it 'allows middleware to abruptly stop processing rest of chain' do
diff --git a/test/test_processor.rb b/test/test_processor.rb
index 9f69c759..bdbfa8f3 100644
--- a/test/test_processor.rb
+++ b/test/test_processor.rb
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ class TestProcessor < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
     end
 
     it 'processes as expected' do
-      msg = { 'class' => MockWorker.to_s, 'args' => ['myarg'] }
+      msg = Sidekiq.dump_json({ 'class' => MockWorker.to_s, 'args' => ['myarg'] })
       processor = ::Sidekiq::Processor.new(@boss)
       @boss.expect(:processor_done!, nil, [processor])
       processor.process(msg, 'default')
diff --git a/test/test_stats.rb b/test/test_stats.rb
index ce376fdf..3e50083d 100644
--- a/test/test_stats.rb
+++ b/test/test_stats.rb
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ class TestStats < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
     end
 
     it 'updates global stats in the success case' do
-      msg = { 'class' => DumbWorker.to_s, 'args' => [""] }
+      msg = Sidekiq.dump_json({ 'class' => DumbWorker.to_s, 'args' => [""] })
       boss = MiniTest::Mock.new
 
       @redis.with do |conn|
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class TestStats < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
     end
 
     it 'updates global stats in the error case' do
-      msg = { 'class' => DumbWorker.to_s, 'args' => [nil] }
+      msg = Sidekiq.dump_json({ 'class' => DumbWorker.to_s, 'args' => [nil] })
       boss = MiniTest::Mock.new
 
       @redis.with do |conn|