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Matt Damon: 'I spend my life trying to be like Brad Pitt'

Bad news for the residents of New York City: After many years of making it his home, Matt Damon is packing up and moving his family to Los Angeles. But the TODAY anchors wanted to see if they could entice him to stick around a little longer when he visited on Tuesday, even suggesting he'd be a great mayoral candidate. "Basically all of our friends with little kids are out there," said Damon. "We'r

Bad news for the residents of New York City: After many years of making it his home, Matt Damon is packing up and moving his family to Los Angeles. But the TODAY anchors wanted to see if they could entice him to stick around a little longer when he visited on Tuesday, even suggesting he'd be a great mayoral candidate.

"Basically all of our friends with little kids are out there," said Damon. "We're a little conflicted. We love it here, we're really happy here and New York will always be here. It might just turn out to be a little jaunt out there and then a return.... It's hard to leave here."

Later on, however, he got down to business with Lauer and discussed his new sci-fi action film, "Elysium," which was directed by "District 9's" Neill Blomkamp. It takes place in a futuristic world where Earth is a third-world country and the "haves" live on a rotating space station called Elysium, but while it has "cool resonant themes," said Damon, it's not meant to rabble-rouse.

"Neill, the director, would just go crazy if he thought anybody was saying it was a 'call to action,'" he said. "All he really wants to do is make up the most entertaining ... sci-fi movie that he can."

One last matter: Lauer brought up an interview in which Damon suggested that his frequent co-star Brad Pitt was actually envious of him. Damon explained the envy actually came from the fact that he could walk with his kids in New York and not be assailed by photographers, unlike Pitt.

"What else would it be?" laughed Damon. "I spend my life trying to be like Brad Pitt."

Elysium opens in theaters on Aug. 9.