Breaking Bad: Jesse Pinkman's Height Is Still Questioned By Fans

At the start of "Breaking Bad," Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) is at least partially a comic relief character, with the series' first episode including Jesse's funniest "Breaking Bad" moments. Soon, however, viewers learn numerous tragic details about Jesse throughout "Breaking Bad," coloring him in a new light. One episode's mention of Jesse's height, however, has plenty of fans neither amused nor saddened, but simply confused.

In April of 2023, well after the conclusions of "Breaking Bad" and even its prequel "Better Call Saul," user Lastacc12 started a thread on the "Breaking Bad" subreddit titled "Jesses height inflation," describing a scene in which a doctor employed by Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) describes Jesse as 180cm tall. In another episode, Skyler White (Anna Gunn) reveals that Walt (Bryan Cranston) is 5'11", which is equivalent to 180cm rounded up to the nearest inch. Walt, however, is visibly taller than Jesse, hence the original post's confusion over this measurement of Jesse's height.

Many fans responded by proposing absurd theories that might explain the discrepancy, like user Saufknecht, who jokingly argued that two separate Jesses — one taller and one shorter — alternate throughout "Breaking Bad." That said, such a discussion isn't unique to this particular thread, and has been ongoing for years.

One Reddit thread similarly questioning the 180cm measurement of Jesse's height dates back to 2017, and proposes that Americans must be generally tall, given that Jesse looks 5'9" or 5'10" at most. The top comment in this thread, from user Colinlb, claims that Aaron Paul himself is 5'8", meaning that either Paul plays a taller character on "Breaking Bad," or that Gus might have inflated his height.

User seeking-abyss started another such thread in 2019, suggesting that the 180cm measurement might even be intentionally falsified and somehow significant. That thread's top comment, by user Sin_Researcher, floats that it might reflect Gus' lack of interest in Jesse as anything more than a tool, supported by how he treats Jesse throughout the series. Meanwhile, user InternationalAmount simply stated that Jesse is inarguably a short character, to the extent that his stature is significant to his role.

Fans largely agree, then, that based on his appearance relative to other characters throughout "Breaking Bad," Jesse is not 180cm tall as stated in this one scene that attributes him with a precise height. While this could be relevant to Jesse's dynamic with Gus, it's also entirely possible, of course, that the series' American writers are simply inept with measurements in centimeters and mistakenly made Jesse out to be a slightly taller-than-average man.