Clancy Brown and Connery do get mentioned more with the acting but I kind of feel like thats almost expected for blockbusters, that you have some serious chops for the villain and the mentor but Lambert's intense presence and general strangeness were I think a pretty big reason why the film worked.
Gosling I spose maybe almost too famous now but he is someone you could instantly pick out of a crowd via "otherness" the same way, Drive being an obvious example of that being used to the films advantage.
I spose French actors naturally come to mind due to Lambert and I think they do tend to have that kind of appeal quite oftem, intense and a little strange playing up screen presense, switch surname and firstname and Lambert WIlson I think could also have pulled off the role back in the day, maybe even Denis Lavant. Again these days actually Seydoux comes to mind first for that kind of brooding intensity, I think you could actually do a female immortal role quite well maybe playing up the "witch" aspect? medieval French peasant girl gets run though by some rapist knight, doesn't die and gets thrown in a river as a witch.
