Eight-year-old Trudi (Butters) meets Rick Dalton, now a waning actor who cut his chops mostly in Westerns, on the set of the TV show Lancer. Rick’s playing “the heavy,” the latest in his steady stream of guest appearances as the bad guy who shows up, shoots ‘em up, and gets offed by the good guy. He encounters Trudi during his lunch break. She’s reading a biography of Walt Disney, who she thinks is a visionary. She requests Rick only refer to her by her character name, part of her process for giving the best performance she can (although there’s no such thing as a “best” performance; every performance is just a chance to be better, she reminds Rick). He’s reading a Western about — what else — a washed-up cowboy, and it truly resonates with his crisis of confidence about his career. Trudi ends up having to comfort a crying Rick, even though she’s about 35 years his junior. She also gives him a talking to about calling her “pumpkin puss.”