diff --git a/narwhals/_pandas_like/dataframe.py b/narwhals/_pandas_like/dataframe.py
index b9080322d..08bb88d58 100644
--- a/narwhals/_pandas_like/dataframe.py
+++ b/narwhals/_pandas_like/dataframe.py
@@ -698,9 +698,6 @@ def to_numpy(self, dtype: Any = None, copy: bool | None = None) -> Any:
             # pandas default differs from Polars, but cuDF default is True
             copy = self._implementation is Implementation.CUDF
 
-        if dtype is not None:
-            return self._native_frame.to_numpy(dtype=dtype, copy=copy)
-
         df = self.with_columns(
             *[
                 self.__narwhals_namespace__()
@@ -712,6 +709,9 @@ def to_numpy(self, dtype: Any = None, copy: bool | None = None) -> Any:
             ]
         )._native_frame
 
+        if dtype is not None:
+            return df.to_numpy(dtype=dtype, copy=copy)
+
         # pandas return `object` dtype for nullable dtypes if dtype=None,
         # so we cast each Series to numpy and let numpy find a common dtype.
         # If there aren't any dtypes where `to_numpy()` is "broken" (i.e. it