diff --git a/src/common/wxchar.cpp b/src/common/wxchar.cpp
index 6d682be476..edbe661e75 100644
--- a/src/common/wxchar.cpp
+++ b/src/common/wxchar.cpp
@@ -599,13 +599,7 @@ int vfwprintf(FILE *stream, const wxChar *format, va_list argptr)
     if ( rc != -1 )
     {
         // we can't do much better without Unicode support in libc...
-        if ( fprintf(stream, "%s",
-#if wxUSE_UNICODE
-                     s.mb_str().data()
-#else
-                     s.c_str()
-#endif
-                 ) == -1 )
+        if ( fprintf(stream, "%s", (const char*)s.mb_str() ) == -1 )
             return -1;
     }