diff --git a/pandas/core/arrays/categorical.py b/pandas/core/arrays/categorical.py
index 40a169d03f39c..92859479ec73f 100644
--- a/pandas/core/arrays/categorical.py
+++ b/pandas/core/arrays/categorical.py
@@ -1728,7 +1728,8 @@ def fillna(self, value=None, method=None, limit=None):
         # pad / bfill
         if method is not None:
 
-            values = self.to_dense().reshape(-1, len(self))
+            # TODO: dispatch when self.categories is EA-dtype
+            values = np.asarray(self).reshape(-1, len(self))
             values = interpolate_2d(values, method, 0, None, value).astype(
                 self.categories.dtype
             )[0]