Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marie Allen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marie , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I definitely wish I had started my creative/influencer career earlier. That being said, I think a large majority of the population spent a lot of time on social media during the first wave of Covid, while everyone was at home in quarantine. I know I did to combat the boredom. I am an animal lover and always have been. I have always had 4 to 5 dogs at a time. If only I had stopped to think that my babies could be entertaining people just like the dog videos I was watching. I must say unfortunately the thought never crossed my mind.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I initially started my social media pages for my dogs at the urging of a crew member because two of my bulldogs are the family dogs in the Limited Docuseries on HBO Max, “The Staircase”. I have, or had should I say, twin bulldogs. Unfortunately, one passed. My boy had done some modeling when he was about six. If I had only started their social media page back then. I honestly never knew how many people would be interested in how we came to be in the industry, and then the product we use and advertise for. Hindsight!! Little did I know this would be the beginning of what became the twin’s “profession”.
It all started when a friend, who was friends with a casting agent, noticed that he had a casting call for a bulldog. She urged me to message them. After much thought, because I had no clue what I was doing, I took the plunge and decided the worst that could happen was he could say no. So I did, it and he messaged me back the same night. He asked if I could bring the twins to his facility the next day. Come to find out he was only about 15 minutes from my house. I took the twins and off we went to meet him. Much to my surprise I actually knew him because his daughter and my youngest son, who is now 19, were in the same preschool class. I had no idea what everyone’s parents did.

After taking some still shots of the twins, on his property, and seeing what type of commands and obedience they had he sent the pictures and info to his client and let me know that I should hear back in about 2 weeks- shockingly, I received news within 24 hours. His client loved Auburn so much that they booked him immediately so as not to lose him! The job was to represent a company whose face of the company is an English Bulldog. It was for a weekend long trade show for the industry of providing different products to convenience stores- he was front and center on his own stage as the face of the client’s company. He acted as their very own bulldog mascot. People took pictures with him as he strutted his stuff around the company’s designated space. As a first timer, and only knowing basic commands that I had taught them myself, we didn’t know exactly what we were getting into. But the English Bulldog breed is known for their laid back demeanor, so it wasn’t difficult for Auburn to sit, stay and lay down on his platform- he was just as interested in “people watching” as the people watching, so he didn’t have any desire to wander off. It was an eye opening experience, and I’d never given any thought to animals in the industry, how they came to be chosen for different facets, or what it took to be involved in print work, commercials, magazines, tv and movies, and I had no idea that it wouldn’t be a one and done for us.

It was an utter shock when I received a message from a different animal casting agency about two years later. To this day I have no idea how they came across my personal Facebook page, as I hadn’t made any attempts to become more involved in the industry. Plus, my page was about my personal life and the twins and nothing that had to do with the Industries. The casting agent contacted me to find out if we were interested in having Auburn play a surfing bulldog in a children’s movie. I told her that I would be interested but expressed concern about Auburn never having been on a surf board. That being said, he had, in the past, gladly hopped on a snowboard with my kids. The agent had confidence that Auburn had potential, saying that “if he could snowboard, he could surf”! I had reservations, but she said that the job was basically mine to turn down.

I took a leap, and in early February I got to work with Auburn on a borrowed body board at the lake. It was just the two of us, a doggy life jacket, and a jar of peanut butter. Talk about humble beginnings. He trusted me so much that within five minutes, I was waist deep in freezing water and he was on the board. I was absolutely dumbfounded at his ability to balance on the board, unphased even with the boats around us being launched and taken out of the water. He was a natural. To my dismay, the job was continuously delayed by weeks at a time, and they wound up canceling the project over The State of Georgia and tax credits. So as the saying goes (and it couldn’t be more true) “that’s show business”. Life continued.

A little over two years after that, the same agent reached out again, and asked if I was interested in trying out for a show- only this time, it would be Auburn AND Georgia. It’s commonplace for potential candidates to be left in the dark regarding the details of the job until after you’re chosen for the project, so I had no clue what I was signing up for. Out of sheer curiosity, I agreed for our agent to send over the twin’s pictures. Their pictures were chosen out of a host of other dogs from multiple agencies. The casting producers who chose the twins wanted to meet them in person, and so a location was chosen, and when we arrived, everything was very discreet. Needless to say, I was somewhat taken aback. When the director of casting, along with the writer Maggie Kohn and the producer Antonio Campos walked into the room, I didn’t know who they were at the time. There is a secretive nature to casting- you have no idea how many other dogs they’re meeting, so they keep everything under wraps until you are cast. It was all whispers between the writer and producer, which had me second guessing everything. While we waited on Maggie and Antonio, I showed off the cute tricks that the twins could preform, like high five, low five, kisses, speak, roll over, along with the basics. Within minutes, it was all over and we headed home feeling a bit underwhelmed. It was all very anticlimactic.
A week later, our agent contacted us to let us know that we got the job! I think I screamed!!! We were filled in on all of the details. The twins would be the family dogs in the HBO Max Limited Docuseries “The Staircase.” It was then that I realized that I’d already watched the Netflix documentary that the show is based on during COVID quarantine. We started filming our parts beginning early June, but filming was already under way. We filmed all the way to the end of November in Atlanta. Sets and several homes in Buckhead. By May 2021, the show was ready to premiere, and the rest was history.

Sadly and suddenly we lost Georgia on December 2. I am still traumatized by the very sudden and entire experience. I will say it was extremely difficult watching The Staircase and seeing her on TV and her not being with me and Auburn while we watched.

Shortly thereafter my agent asked if and Auburn would feel like filming a few segments for a few Infomercial advertisements for a multi billion dollar company. He did so and it was fun but my heart wasn’t completely in it. It would up not happened and once again we hear “that’s show business” If I hear that one more time it will be one more time than I want to hear.

So here we sit patiently waiting for our next call!

In your view, what can society do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I’ve always tried to be a supportive person. I would say there isn’t enough of that in the world. I will be the first to tell you I am not perfect. Not saying I am 100% of the time but I try to be. Just because something is not your “cup of tea“ creatively does not mean it isn’t for a large number of other people. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean you have to comment negatively on it. Why not just read it and move on. I’ve never understood the whole keyboard warrior thing. I have never understood people who want to pick a fight on someone’s social media or insult someone in writing. Would you do that in person? Why not just move on? Don’t take it out on others. Someone can be super proud of something they have done and it may be your comment that completely lets the air out of their balloon. Some people hang on the words of others and they may be looking for that affirmation and run across you’re negative or harsh words and want to give up. So read it, and just move on. Don’t be the reason someone gives up.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Very early on I was like a lot of people who just have social media for their personal lives, and to stay connected with friends and family. My dogs have always been on my social media, but they were never the sole focus. It wasn’t until my dogs were cast on The Staircase that I realized people were interested in how it all came about. I began focusing more on building the twin’s social media around them being on the show, and showing snippets of behind the scenes pictures/videos.

My advice for anyone starting a social media for themselves, or a product is to just start! It is definitely a learning process and it will change and morph with new ideas along the way. You just have to go with it. Right now mine is not the best, but it is certainly not the worst of what I’ve seen. And of course it is all perspective. Choose something you are passionate about because chances are there are people who are scrolling who are also passionate about it and enjoy seeing and reading your content. Only look back to see what you were doing and grow from it. Don’t ever beat yourself up and wish you hadn’t posted it. Learn from it. We all had to start somewhere right? You might also see that you have multiple new comments and can engage with new followers on how you did something or are interested and want you to expand on a post or discussion. Before you know it, you will have created a presence and start gaining more and more followers. I only have a very small fraction of the amount of followers I will have one day! I get so excited every day when I get one or two or 10 followers! It’s better than none! I have heard so many times “it isn’t about the number“. I disagree. If your numbers are going up it means you are doing something right and more people are loving your content.. If your numbers are going down, people are losing interest. It may be time to reevaluate. If you have already started your page, breath and grow with it. Don’t resist.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: 2boujeebulldogs
• Facebook: 2boujeebulldogs
• Other: TikTok: 2boujeebulldogs